Si#/rY 



Glimpses of Truth: 



Spiritual, Ethical, Practical. 



/ 



BY 



O. P. FITZGERALD, D.D. 



(Nashville Christian Advocate, 1878-1883.) 



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Sowtfoet4t Sltetdobbt ^iMi^hiwa SrCousn. 

1883. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, 

By the Book Agents of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

• in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



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EXPLANATORY AND PREFATORY. 



This book was called for by many persons in different 

i 
places. I arranged the matter for the printer, and then, 

having misgivings, withheld it. The call Was renewed in 

a way that looked to me like a providential intimation, 

and then I went forward with the matter— and here is the 

result. I pray that God may bless it. 

O. P. Fitzgerald. 

Nashville, September 3, 1883. 



-*^35| 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

B Y BISHOP GRANBER Y. ' 



The light sword of Saladin was a match for the battle- 
ax of Richard. Inspiration has sanctioned the use of prov- 
erbs as a mode of instruction. Many who, for want of time 
or taste, will not read elaborate works may be reached by 
apothegms and brief essays. All have spare minutes which 
they may improve by reading the short, sharp sayings of 
the wise. All have moods in which they prefer a senten- 
tious to a copious style ; and suggestions of truth to formal 
discussion. Throughout our Church there has been a gen- 
eral expression of admiration for the pointed sentences and 
paragraphs of Dr. Fitzgerald. They are good for the use 
of edifying. They ore flashes of light for the understand- 
ing, arrows of conviction for the conscience, refreshing 
essences for weary souls. We need to be more diligent in 
providing and circulating a wholesome literature. These 
Glimpses as the author modestly names them, these Gems 
as they have been called by his readers, should have a wide 
diffusion. J. C. Granbery. 



(glimpses n\ Mrrutt[. 






• as — G~t> <l?j 



MAKE A CLEAN START. 



M' 



AKE a clean start with the new year. 
Lay aside every weight, that you may 
run well the race set before you. You 
have been in wrong ways, get out of them now. 
You have long purposed to make changes for 
the better. The time is propitious for action. 
Begin the new year by healing the wounds 
of affection and friendship. Alienations in 
Church and social and home relations are 
heavy hinderances to the Christian life. They 
darkened your sky last year. The thought of 
the injury received, of the bitter speech report- 
ed to your ears, intruded itself upon you even 
in the place of secret prayer, and fettered the 
movement of your soul in the worship of the 
sanctuary. The friction in the home-life made 
the wheels of family religion drag all through 
the year. These roots of bitterness in the heart 
stunted the growth of every flower that blooms 
in that garden of the Lord. You have brooded 
over the wrongs or little slights that made the 
trouble until the arrow has gone still deeper 

(0) 



10 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

into your heart. It was your brother in Christ, 
your own familiar friend, that did it, and there- 
in was the keenness of the sting to you. There 
has been constraint in your intercourse, and a 
shadow on your spiritual life. The cold and 
the stolid escape suffering and loss from this 
cause. The best natures are often the greatest 
sufferers and losers. They cannot lose a friend 
without keen pangs and permanent regret, nor 
be content while the slightest cloud is between 
them and those they love. The beginning of 
the new year is the time to cure these aliena- 
tions. Readjustment of disturbed relationships 
is in order. But how? Get down on your 
knees and ask God for wisdom, and you will 
get the right answer for every case. First of 
all, be reconciled in your heart to your brother. 
This may be effected without any cooperation 
but God's. If he has done aught against thee, 
forgive him. It may take fasting and prayer 
to cast out the devil of resentment, but do it. 
Do not begin the new year with such dark 
companionship. Get your heart* right, and 
then you may win back your brother. Do not 
stand on punctilio. Be not too proud or stiff 
to make the first overture for peace. But, you 
reply, he was in the wrong, and ought to make 
confession and reparation. You think so; but 
there may be another side to the question. He 



may have seen it in a different light. A differ- 
ence in the stand-point makes a marvelous dif- 
ference in the looks of things. Do not be too 
rigid in your exactions. Perhaps the heart of 
your alienated brother is yearning for peace. 
He waits because you wait; the years creep 
by, and the end cometh. Speak the reconciling 
word now, and start with the new year dis- 
burdened of this load. 

Make a clean start in your home. It is not 
more love that you need, but more self-com- 
mand, more patience, more thoughtfulness. 
During the past year you have heedlessly given 
many a wound to dear ones that you would be 
ready to die for. You have hated yourself for 
doing it, and yet you have not ceased doing it. 
Impatient and angry speech has grown into a 
habit that has clung to you to the last day of 
the old year. Do not take this burden with 
you into the new year. Guard your heart and 
your lips. Do not, in the very wantonness of 
unguarded words, turn the paradise of home 
into a hell of petty discord and gratuitous alien- 
ation. Instead of the thistles that you sowed 
last year, plant now the flowers of patience and 
loving words. Begin with the new year to fight 
this battle. It may go hard at first, but you 
will win. Exercise your will; force yourself 
into the right ways, and soon the potency of 



the wonderful law of habit will assert itself, 
and you will be victorious. And be sure God 
will help you. 

Take no wrong habit into the new year. 
You are running for a prize. Lay aside every 
weight. Make a clean start. 






GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 13 

TT7HE supplemental Christian is the man who 
A does all he can to make up for the short- 
comings of the shirkers. His measure of serv- 
ice is the measure of need. "As much as in me 
is," is his motto. He keeps back no part of 
the price. According to his ability he holds 
himself responsible to the Master. What is 
done by others is no standard for him. He 
rises above the dead level. And there is a 
countless multitude of such — holy men and 
women who have no name on earth, but who 
will shine as the stars forever. 



Nothing but the shock of the final catastro- 
phe of the lost soul at the judgment will awak- 
en many to see how foolish and how wicked it 
is to make the delinquencies of another the pre- 
text for neglecting the great salvation. 



The man who is always ready to avail him- 
self of the benefits of Church organization, 
while shirking its burdens, has adopted ethics 
below the level of a mock-auction house. 



Every shout of error over any apparent tri- 
umph this side of the judgment is premature. 



When the thought of the nearness of God is 
delightful to you, then he is near. 




The thought that enlarges your view of re- 
ligious truth, and stimulates your movement 
in the new life, is doubly yours after you have 
expressed it. Duty and advantage prompt 
obedience to the command of God to Chris- 
tians to exhort, comfort, and edify one another. 



When a preacher finds himself opposed and 
denounced by men whose gains are made at the 
expense of the best interests of society, he may 
console himself with the reflection that his 
Master was in the same relation to such parties. 



A Church cannot have momentum and speed 
without some friction. A train in motion can 
be heard. No forward movement of Chris- 
tianity was ever made without alarming some- 
body. :_ 

When a man sets up as a reformer, if he is 
not better than the average of his fellow-citi- 
zens, he is sure to be a good deal worse — su- 
peradding hypocrisy to ordinary depravity. 



If your child should begin in earnest to fol- 
low Christ, what change would be necessary in 
your life to meet the new demand upon you? 
Make that change now. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 15 

Some preachers seem to aspire to be only 
skillful empirics. They train the Church into 
the practice of a perpetual empiricism. Rath- 
er, they do not train it at all. They let it drift 
along until an emergency arises, trusting to 
luck, or to their fertility in temporary expedi- 
ents for extrication. Two classes of men fall 
into this error —the incapables and the egotists. 
The one class have no forethought and organ- 
izing ability, and the other have too much self- 
conceit. 

The physician who is also a Christian can 
place his feet directly in the foot-prints of his 
Master, and the flowers of paradise will blossom 
where he has gone. 

A professor of mathematics who does not 
know the multiplication-table is no more out of 
place than a Sunday-school teacher without re- 
ligion. 

It is worse than folly— it is sin — to ask, 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" when 
your inmost purpose is to please yourself 
only. 

The intermittent laborer in the vineyard of 
the Lord does just enough work to make dis- 
appointment and confusion when he shirks. 



16 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The man who worked himself into a compe- 
tency and respectability makes a great mistake 
when he keeps his son from regular habits of 
industry. His object may be to make a gen- 
tleman out of him, but the job, when finished, 
will more likely turn out to be a loafer. 



A true preacher is not merely an expounder 
of truth; he is also a witness of its saving pow- 
er. He who has lost or never had this power 
may get hearers, but he will not have converts. 



There might be a temptation even to a good 
man to keep up a quarrel that has profited him, 
after the occasion was gone; to a bad man the 
temptation would be irresistible. 



Only those who win can wear in any true 
sense of the word. You must earn all you en- 
joy. The attempt to evade this law makes 
drones, thieves, cheats, failures. 



Do not wait for impulses to do good, but 
when you do feel a warm impulse wait not a 
moment. Then you can do your best. 



Be sure of this: The most favored will fail 
if they do not strive for salvation; the least 
favored will succeed if they do. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 17 

Beware of lowering the standard of possible 
Christian attainment because of the defective 
practice prevalent in the Churches. Your Lord 
beckons you up to the heights of holiness: go, 
if you must go alone. 



The Christian who is truly growing in grace 
grows also in graciousness. The very look 
from the eyes and tone of the voice betray the 
presence of the indwelling Christ. 



Can a man who is not seeking to obtain all 
that God is willing to give please him ? Do 
you get here a hint of the secret of your lack 
of spiritual comfort and joy? 



"When the worst elements of society praise 
you because of your "liberality" in dealing 
with the vices by which they live, it is time for 
you to pause and meditate. 



Your high ideal of holiness is from God. 
That means that it may be attained by you. If 
it may be attained, why not now grasp the prize 
in the strength of God? 



The man or the woman whose daily work is 
so hurried as to exclude prayer is busier than 
God wants anybody to be. 



18 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Do not be surprised when you find the same 
man at one moment throwing himself against 
overwhelming odds for his convictions, and at 
another trying to quibble out of his brave com- 
mittal. He has cooled down. There is no 
glow in cold iron. 

One Christian man in a hundred when he 
meets with seme unexpected good fortune in 
business takes it as an intimation that he should 
do more for the cause of Christ. The other 
ninety-nine think of nothing but to grab for 
more. 

It is sad to think how many souls may be 
worried, clouded, and tempted to sin by one 
ill-balanced, impulsive, hasty-speaking man. 
Do not, in assenting to this, look round for the 
man — look within. 

Gray-haired Christian men go out of curios- 
ity to hear every thing most sacred to them de- 
famed by a professional blasphemer. Their 
sons go to the places that take hold on hell from 
the same motive. 

When the pulpit goes as far as the New 
Testament goes in its teaching as to the neces- 
sity and attainability of holiness, there is al- 
ways an upward movement among the people. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 19 

Good praying habits are as needful for the 
soul as good eating habits are for the body; 
but thousands are particular about the dinner- 
hour who make no provision for the hour of 
prayer. 

We have known Christian women to kiss a 
young convert belonging to their own sex and 
circle with real joy and wet eyes, and then drop 
the whole matter. Have you known such a 
one? 

The bill for the tuition of a daughter in one 
of the best schools is paid more reluctantly by 
some parents than that for a fashionable " hop " 
and its et cceteras. 

The man who believes he can live the Chris- 
tian life as well out of the Church as in it has 
studied the Bible and his own heart to little 
purpose. 

The preacher delivered a very able and learned 
discourse to convince skeptics — who were ab- 
sent. The flock went back home hungry that 
day. 

You have the right to criticise any public 
man, but do not whisper to another what you 
would be afraid for him to hear. 



20 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

A man who is willing to work for Christ 
does not need the leverage of official position 
to make himself felt. Work is always ready 
for willing hands. A path of usefulness always 
opens before the advance of willing feet. 



The discovery in your spiritual nature of 
some unexpected blemish is not a cause of dis- 
couragement but of humble gratitude. It is 
the first step in the process of cleansing. 



The poorest of all remedies for trouble on 
shipboard is to jump overboard into the raging 
sea. - People that leave the Church because of 
personal difficulties are just as unwise. 



The man who has one code of ethics for busi- 
ness and another for legislation will betray a 
public trust at the first temptation. An apple 
rotten on one side is a bad apple. 



The man who drew back after pledging him- 
self to a great enterprise of the Church did 
not intend to kill it, but he did. "Weakness and 
panics are contagious. r 



Do not let a false notion of dignity stand in 
the way of conciliation. Peace is worth any 
sacrifice except that of principle. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 21 

Watch! There is in the word security, not 
alarm. To watch is to make provision in time. 
It is to exercise forethought. The general who 
has made the wisest disposition possible of his 
forces, properly stationed his pickets, and taken 
all due precaution against surprise, may lie 
down in his tent and rest. His mind is at ease 
when his duty is done. The farmer who has 
plowed, sowed, and diligently cultivated his 
fields may trust in God and quietly wait for 
the harvest. The captain of the ship who has 
duly consulted his compass and chart, and prog- 
nosticated the weather, may sail on with a calm 
and courageous heart. The traveler who does 
not dread the highwayman is the one who is 
well armed. The watchful Christian is the 
peaceful Christian. 



It is not to be expected that there shall be 
strong faith in the conversion of their children 
on the part of parents who are themselves only 
nominal Christians; they cannot well go be- 
yond their own experience in their aspirations, 
hopes, and prayers for their children. 



The minister leads the people in prayer. 
But a long, rambling, pointless prayer leads 
nowhere. The remedy for this sort of praying 
is really earnest desire for some one thing. 



22 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The field of petition is as wide as human 
want and capability — it is literally boundless. 
But it does not all come at once within the 
range of vision. Some things may be left for 
other occasions and to the infinite wisdom and 
goodness of God. There must be concentra- 
tion of thought, desire, aspiration. If taught 
by the word and led by the Spirit, this concen- 
tration will take place. Believest thou this? 
" We know not what we should pray for as we 
ought, but the Spirit itself maketh interces- 
sion for us." The providence of God, the , 
leadings of the Holy Spirit, and the dictates 
of common sense coincide here, and the true 
believer is taught what to pray for as he ought 
and when he ought. In genuine revivals of 
religion this is graciously and wondrously il- 
lustrated before our eyes. In the lives of 
many Christians this truth' is a personal expe- 
rience so often repeated that their faith stag- 
gers not under its weight of meaning, nor 
shrinks back abashed at such a marvelous 
manifestation of the love of God to men. 
They have learned in all things to make known 
their requests unto God with thanksgiving. 
They understood the voice which, says, "Ask, 
and ye shall receive." They know that their 
prayers are heard, for they have the witness in 
themselves. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 23 

The apostolic Church was a singing Church. 
The disciples sang hymns when they met on 
the Lord's day. They sang when they were 
happy; they sang when they were sad. Paul 
was a singer — witness his taking part in that 
joyful duet with his brother Barnabas in jail. 
The earthquake that followed, making the 
massive prison-house shake to its foundations, 
might be considered symbolic of many subse- 
quent occasions in the history of the Church, 
when, borne on the wings of holy song, the faith 
of worshiping multitudes has invited the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost in soul-converting and 
soul-enrapturing power. 



Let every parent remember that his child 
will follow his example, and not his precept, 
where they conflict with each other. It is in 
vain that you tell your boy not to do what you 
do. Indeed, correct precept is positively harm- 
ful when conjoined with wrong practice, for to 
the child it seems as if you were superadding 
hypocrisy to wrong-doing. 



In studying the Bible, the first thing is to 
have a relish for it. To the renewed and con- 
secrated soul this relish comes by its own law. 
If you have it not, you need the grace of spir- 
itual perception. Pray for that. 



24 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The condition of possessing religious joy is 
that it shall be the chief joy of the soul. It 
will hold no second place. It is the joy of 
complete consecration. The joy of the Holy 
Ghost will not live in a divided heart. There 
must be perfect submission to God, unreserved 
devotion to his service, before it can be felt. 
The love of the world will quench it at once, 
It must be kept alive by prayer. It must be 
fed by communion with the word of God. No 
man may expect to know the joy of religion 
who does not make his religion the chief thing 
in all things and at all times. 



This may be the bridal year of your soul. 
You know not the day nor the hour when the 
bridegroom may come. Before the next new 
year you may be in that wondrous sphere where 
faith changes to sight, and hope to fruition; 
where you shall see your Lord face to face, 
and be where he is forever. Let your lamp be 
trimmed and burning. Sublime possibilities 
are before you. Watch, and be ready. 



It is the quality of ministerial labor that 
tells in the long run. Be concerned, therefore, 
only for this one thing: That you put your best 
into all you do, from the sermon on Sunday to 
the casual greeting to a child on the street. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 25 

The Church must to some extent conform 
itself to the requirements of the complex civ- 
ilization of our times. In a more primitive 
state of society its organization was more sim- 
ple, and there was less danger that its spiritual 
life might be ingulfed in the vortex of tempo- 
ralities. This danger is to be obviated, not by 
lopping off these agencies and discarding the 
machinery of the modern Church. This can- 
not and will not be done. The present system, 
though doubtless imperfect, is the outgrowth 
of existing conditions and necessities, and must 
therefore be maintained in its essential feat- 
ures. The further secularization of the Church 
can be prevented only in one way, namely, by 
using only religious methods and infusing a 
fervent religious spirit into all its work. Every 
part of Church-work must be used as a means 
of grace. The preacher must expect a blessing 
in arranging for his collections as well as in 
preparing his sermons. The clink of the mon- 
ey contributed by willing hearts to the cause 
of God must be as sweetly musical to the soul 
as the melodious revival chorus. 



The trimmer is in a pitiable position when 
he is forced to take sides in a fight for the 
right after it is too late to save either his use- 
fulness or his reputation for manliness. 



26 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Give the world six days out of the seven, and 
what can be expected but that the world will 
get six-sevenths of the man? To allow all the 
thoughts and feelings to flow unobstructed in 
a worldly channel all the week, and then expect 
that they can be made to take another direction 
at such short notice, and flow heavenward in a 
vigorous current, is to expect the most palpa- 
ble contradiction of the laws of moral action. 
If the week-day life be absorbed by the world, 
how can it be expected that the Sunday life 
will be truly hid with Christ in God? The 
Christian life is not a parenthesis, as many 
seem to think. 

The men and women who take delight in 
reading the details of the doings of vicious peo- 
ple of both sexes would take equal delight in 
witnessing or participating in them were they 
not restrained by the conventionalities of soci- 
ety. Read the foregoing sentence slowly, and 
then— apply it. 

A joyless religion indicates to the world that 
its possessor has given up its enjoyments and 
gotten nothing instead. This is a stumbling- 
block to many. 

To-day links itself to all days. Despair is 
stupidity in a soul that has immortality ahead. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 27 

In many, if not most, cases a subtle unbelief 
is at the bottom of the neglect of holiness. It 
is looked upon as the privilege of the few, not 
the heritage of the many. It is regarded as a 
prize beyond the reach of all except a few who 
are specially endowed and specially favored. 
Thus it happens that this neglect of holiness 
assumes the name and garb of humility itself, 
the blackness of unbelief robing itself in the 
garments of light. 

A dying Church has a weak voice. A dead 
Church is dumb. Proxy worship satisfies such 
as have only a name to live and yet are dead. 
The rounded periods of the pulpit rhetorician 
and the artistic notes of the choir are enough 
for him Avhose religion is merely a form. 
When the proxy system reaches vocal solos 
and prayers in a dead language, it has touched 
bottom. 

The man or woman who is not trying to be 
helpful to others cannot be more than half a 
Christian. The very essence of Christianity 
is love in action. This is the spirit of Christ, 
and if any man have not this spirit he is none 
of his. 

Like a crack in a wall, a small fracture in a 
friendship endangers it all. Repair it at once. 



28 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

When a body of Christian ministers com- 
prises an unusual number of men of talent and 
aggressive temperament, the only way by which 
they can save themselves from collisions and 
antagonisms among themselves is to pray much 
for the mind that was in Christ, and be always 
about their Master's business. Such is the 
subtlety of Satan that the very gifts of the men 
who serve at the altars of the Church are per- 
verted to the disturbance of its peace and the 
hinderance of its prosperity. 



The most mischievous apostles of ignorance 
are not the ignoramuses that openly oppose all 
liberal learning and culture, but the learned 
fools whose pedantry and impracticability prove 
that their minds are mere lumber-rooms, not 
workshops. Unassuming ignorance is less re- 
pulsive than pretentious folly. 



The true minister of Christ not only shines, 
but burns. His sermons have both an intel- 
lectual and a spiritual glow. He not only stud- 
ies, but he prays. The trouble with some is 
that they shine, but burn not. 



The maintenance of a reverent spirit is im- 
possible in the circle where profanity is quoted 
laughingly by professed Christians. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 29 

The gospel of Jesus Christ embodies the 
only principles on which a free government can 
rest. It enforces not only justice, but requires 
mercy in the dealings of men with one another. 
Despotism on the one hand, and communism 
and all kindred errors on the other, flee before 
the face of a genuine Christianity as she walks 
the earth armed with the power and radiant 
with the glory of God. 



Two things may be profitably borne in mind 
concerning the mission- work of the Church : It 
cannot fail, and it cannot be hurried to its con- 
summation by any short cuts. The word of 
God is pledged for its success, and the Church 
must make the requisite outlay in faith, prayer, 
labor, money, and patience. 



To build a flimsy story of Greek on a rickety 
foundation of half -knowledge of English syn- 
tax and mathematics, is not the best way of 
making great preachers. 



The Church militant is so called because it 
is to fight against sin, not because of its inter- 
nal strife. Mark the distinction. 



The revival method that really brings the 
revival is the right one. 



30 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Every appointment in the bounds of an An- 
nual Conference must be filled by somebody. 
The magnanimity that would give the post of 
difficulty and hardship to another every time is 
very common, but it is not of the Pauline type. 



One gifted alumnus of a Christian college 
molded into the image of Jesus, and sent out 
under the call of God to preach the gospel, is 
worth to the Church and the world more than 
any one institution among us has cost. 



As long as the vices that would exclude a 
man from decent parlors do not disqualify him 
for leadership in a party fight, political cor- 
ruption is inevitable. 



Christianity insists on separation from the 
world. The world insists on amalgamation. 
The pastors must see to it that the world shall 
not carry this point. 



The time to push a thing is when you can. 
Do not wait until the ebb-tide before you launch 
the needed Church enterprise. 



As to the fact, the philosophy, and the fruits 
of intercessory prayer, the average Christian is 
scarcely half awake. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 31 

When two souls have once consented to part- 
nership in evil, they are thenceforth singularly 
powerless to help each other in the direction of 
goodness. The guilty secret strikes them with 
moral paralysis and dumbness. 



The early Christians "laid by" the funds 
necessary to meet the Church collections. Many 
Christian men of our day are careful enough 
to lay by for the civil tax-gatherer, but leave 
God's claim at hap-hazard. 



If you will be patiently silent in dealing with 
an excitable but honest man, all the severe 
things you are provoked to say of him he will 
say of himself. He will become his own re- 
prover and punisher. 



The soul that does not find peace in God on 
this side of the grave could not enjoy God in 
heaven. " The kingdom of God is w T ithin you." 



If you have any experience that is too pre- 
cious to be shared with your fellow-believers, 
you have gone beyond your Lord. 



The promise is that you shall overcome. Do 
not be surprised, therefore, that you must fight; 
the promise implies that. 



32 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

Highway robbery is respectable compared 
with the meanness in trade that systematic- 
ally cheats the ignorant. The name of one of 
these pettiest frauds on the Church-register is 
enough to freeze the very current of salvation 
in its flow. 

The moment a "reform party" in politics 
has a fair prospect for success, the rascals seek 
admission to its ranks. And herein is a great 
difficulty in the way of those who are honestly 
battling for reform in this very free country of 
ours. . 

All officials in Church and State are blama- 
ble for the maladministration they carelessly 
overlook as w r ell as for that of which they are 
themselves guilty. Let executives execute, and 
let directors direct. 



The trusting, peaceful heart invites the ap- 
proach of the soul-hungry and burdened. It 
is a bad sign when months and years elapse 
and no one asks your religious sympathy and 
help. 

Suspect the soundness of the new opinions 
which have come to you suddenly as the result 
of a change of circumstances. 



_ G= g-^l^^ 



THE HOLY SPIRIT NOW. 



GHBISTIANITY is nothing if it be not 
supernatural. Its motives, methods, in- 
spiration, and powers are of the " world 
to come." It savors not the things that be of 
men, but those that be of God. The supernat- 
ural element is not confined to the great his- 
toric facts in which the gospel had its origin. 
Provision was made for its perpetuation in the 
experience and operations of the Church to the 
end. The descent of the Spirit on the day of 
Pentecost was the fulfillment of the promise of 
the Son of God, to " send the Comforter, that 
he may abide with you forever," and illustra- 
tive and representative of the processes by 
which the integrity and efficiency of the Church 
should be maintained in all after-times. Here 
the gift was bestowed upon each member of 
the company of disciples. It was an individ- 
ual experience. The record is, "It sat upon 
each of them." That, therefore, which Paul 
asked the twelve disciples whom he found in 
Ephesus, " Have ye received the Holy Ghost 
3 (33) 



34 GLIMPSES OF TBUTH. 

since ye believed?" became the test-question 
of the Christian faith. All argument and ap- 
peal to believers, henceforth, proceed upon the 
assumption that they "were made partakers of 
the Holy Ghost." It is the plea against the 
Judaizing apostasy and desecration of personal 
sanctity. It is the condition of success in 
Christian undertaking, the defense against 
error, the pledge of highest attainments in per- 
sonal experience, and the earnest of the incor- 
ruptible and eternal inheritance. The elimi- 
nation of the presence and operation of the 
Holy Spirit is fatal to the character of the 
Church of God, and to individual Christian 
life. 

To all this, however, we must add the other 
side of truth. Fanaticism severs what God 
has joined together, and recognizes no normal 
relation between the natural and the super- 
natural. The reception of the Holy Ghost is 
supposed to supersede all natural endowments 
and render their employment useless, or even 
obstructive. The bestowment of " power from 
on high" is presumed to lift every man to the 
highest level of efficiency, and fit him for the 
discharge of any and all functions in the Chris- 
tian economy, without consideration of original 
ability or training. The whole of God's work 
in the natural life is made void. It is not 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 35 

brought over into the new life, purified, re- 
fined, intensified, and set in higher relations. 
It is simply disavowed and repudiated, as unfit 
for the kingdom of God; and appeal is made 
to spiritual powers as in no way and to no ex- 
tent associated with the natural faculties. ' 

Thus it sometimes happens that a good man 
is put into the ministry without any faculties 
of utterance or administration. His piety is 
assumed to be sufficient qualification. Many 
a raw, untrained mind is thrust into the work, 
and very extensive and literal application is 
given to special promises of help and enlarge- 
ment. There is much wonder and disappoint- 
ment at the years of feeble performance, or 
entire failure, consequent in such cases. It is 
sometimes claimed that by virtue of the pos- 
session of the Spirit of God the whole Church 
and all its members ought to be able to work 
miracles to-day as the apostles did. Efforts of 
this sort are now and then made, kindling a 
momentary enthusiasm to be followed by inev- 
itable reaction and disaster to faith. In many 
other forms this same error repeats itself, with 
more or less hurt to the faith, and, in every 
instance, for lack of due observance of the 
limitations and directions imposed by God in 
natural ordinations. 

The fact is, that one of the best proofs of the 



truth of the divine origin of Christianity is to 
be found in the perfect correspondence between 
its order and operations and the character and 
conditions of men. Every element of the gos- 
pel is perfectly adjusted to the appointments 
and appurtenances of our present life. We 
are not taken out of the world when we are put 
in possession of the powers of the world to 
come, nor are we released from the obligation 
of conformity to the laws and limitations un- 
der which God has placed us. All the powers 
of the gospel work within the channels and 
through the faculties of the present life. Un- 
doubtedly the range of a man's life is immense- 
ly enlarged by the revelations made to him. 
He is conscious of direct relations to God and 
unseen things. Motives are furnished of weight 
and urgency hitherto unknown. His mind, 
operating upon higher and subtler things, ac- 
quires a keenness and breadth far beyond 
what would be possible to him under mere 
natural conditions. Sensibility is more acute 
and profound. No man can know the extent 
to which capability of expansion may go. We 
do know that the current thought of to-day, 
even among our children and uneducated class- 
es, is far in advance of that proper to culti- 
vated heathenism; and there are yet to be re- 
sults achieved in the mind and character of 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 37 

man, through the agency of the gospel, beyond 
all present conception. But all this is after 
God's regular way of working. The spirit in 
man receives the inspiration of the Almighty, 
which gives him understanding. Neither is 
without the other. 

Accordingly, the individual character and 
features of each man are preserved under the 
economy of Christianity, and his proper place 
and functions are assigned to each. Paul, 
John, and Peter are not lost in a dead-level of 
uniformity. Each is recognized by his pecul- 
iar qualities, and does a work that neither of 
the others can do. God distributes to every 
man according to his several ability. His 
faith, while it has the same origin, object, and 
end in its efficient and practical forms, is de- 
termined by the constituents of his constitu- 
tion. Brain and heart, mind and will, condi- 
tion the active operations of his faith. His 
individuality is not lost. Hence, " a measure 
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
withal." One is an apostle, one a prophet, one 
an evangelist, one a pastor, or teacher, and so 
on, through all the orders of Church-life. One 
speaks with tongues, one has gifts of healing, 
one works miracles. A special adaptation is 
made of spiritual truth to the endowments, 
conditions, and possibilities of each man. 



38 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There are diversities of gifts. Each is re- 
quired to observe the analogy of faith, and con- 
fine himself to the special function for which 
he is prepared of God. The matter is very 
lucidly set forth in the First Epistle to the Co- 
rinthians, twelfth chapter, which treats of spir- 
itual gifts, and in the twelfth chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans, which gives direction 
to practical life. 

So, too, in preparing men for work, God has 
not despised his own laws. He has availed 
himself of descent, association, education, 
whenever he had a great work in view. The 
apostles, unlearned and ignorant, after the 
rabbinical notion, were taught by the best 
teacher the world ever saw, by the best meth- 
ods which he could employ, the precise things 
they were required to know, before entering 
upon their ministry; and after their years of 
instruction, the Spirit enhanced their powers, 
and supplied the one thing needful to make 
them able ministers of the New Testament. 

We have no reason to suppose that God does 
otherwise now. Natural endowments deter- 
mine a man's place in the world, and the Spirit 
sanctifies them, brings out latent forces in 
him, and makes of him the best of which he 
is capable. Only in one regard does the Spirit 
work to uniformity: we are all to be conformed 



to the image of God's Son. But it will re- 
quire the special features of likeness in each 
and every one to be combined to make an ap- 
proximation to a perfect image of Him who is 
the image of the invisible God. Eye, ear, 
hand, all the organs, each unlike every other, 
each receiving the vital force for different use, 
and giving to it its own functional expression, 
unite to make up the one body which is the 
fullness of Him that .filleth all in all. 






40 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

CTO strong is the tendency to forget what 
+& are the real elements of the power of the 
gospel, and such is the fatal readiness of men 
to- turn blessings into curses, that the genuine 
triumphs of New Testament Christianity at 
one period become a snare and a cause of 
weakness and disaster at another. The spirit- 
uality, the zeal, and the aggressiveness that 
result in the conversion of multitudes, and the 
enlargement of the Church in numbers and in 
wealth, are lost sight of, and the Church which 
in its beginning was mighty through God, 
despite its fewness and its poverty, becomes 
impotent for the glorious spiritual ends of the 
gospel, despite its numbers and its wealth. The 
conquering army becomes a fortified garrison. 
Its banners, which had waved over advancing 
hosts, and were planted on the strongholds of 
the enemy, flap lazily over sleeping encamp- 
ments, or trail the ground in ignominious de- 
feat. The strength of the Church becomes 
weakness, its light is turned into darkness, be- 
cause it substituted a carnal policy for the su- 
pernatural forces of the kingdom of God. 



The times demand men for public office that 
have not only good intentions but strong wills. 
Weakness yields to organized wickedness. The 
day of figure-heads is past — we want men. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 41 

The unity of the Christian Church is dear 
to every true Christian. Some would attain it 
by alluring or coercing all professed followers 
of Christ to come within their own inclosure; 
others would attain it by breaking down all 
doctrinal walls, and turning everybody loose 
upon the unfenced commons of creedlessness. 
Both fail of success. The only practical unity 
now is the unity of the. Spirit. Where this 
prevails, there is no biting or devouring one 
another. The lamb-like spirit will insure peace 
in all the folds of the one flock of Christ. 



Education for your children, under the best 
moral, mental, and physical influences, is the 
best investment you can make for them. And 
yet there are men who are hoarding money to 
be left to half educated, idle, aimless sons who 
will spend it in a way that will look like retri- 
bution for paternal folly. 



The philanthropy that confines itself to its 
own social circle exclusively is not Christian 
philanthropy. Let it be called by what name 
it may, it is only selfishness. 



Many a Diotrephes, in seeking to have the 
preeminence, only puts himself into the pillory 
by succeeding in his ambitious desires. 



42 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

In a ride through the country a few days ago 
we observed that, while the plum-bushes and 
peach-trees were in blossom, and the beeches 
budding, the old gnarled oaks showed no sign 
that spring had come. But in a few days more 
these monarchs of the woods will also show the 
effects of the genial rays of the sun, and soon 
forest. and hedge and orchard will rejoice to- 
gether in the revival of their leafy summer 
glory. So, in nearly every revival of religion 
that has ever come under our direct notice, the 
work of grace has first begun with the children. 
From the least to the greatest seems to be the 
law. 

It is the man, not the place, that tells. Put 
a drone in a garden, and he will starve or be 
supported by others. Put a genuine worker 
in a desert, and he will make it bloom as the 
garden of the Lord. This is not hyperbole — ■ 
it is what is constantly taking place before our 
eyes. 

No minister of the Lord Jesus Christ ever 
had his own spiritual life become deeper and 
stronger without witnessing a corresponding 
effect in the fruits of his ministry. The con- 
verse is also true. This thought is one to be 
prayed over in the secret place. 



' GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 43 

Importunity is a test of true faith. True 
faith is not easily shaken or discouraged. It* 
walks not by sight only. Deep within it feels 
the persuasion of God's faithful loving-kind- 
ness even when his face seems to be hid; be- 
hind the cloud it knows that the sun is still 
shining. It waits patiently for the Lord, know- 
ing that he is faithful who hath promised. The 
delay that calls for importunity is often the 
preparation for the blessing sought. God 
waits that he may be more gracious. The 
delay in answering prayer is sometimes the 
best part of the answer. 



The number of people who will do their duty 
spontaneously, without special reminders and 
stimulation, has always been small. The in- 
junction to us to admonish and exhort one an- 
other was based upon a correct knowledge of 
human nature. 

The flaw in character shows itself just where 
it is most fatal to false aspirations. This is 
the safeguard to society and the Nemesis of 
falseness. 

The preacher who on all occasions is spe- 
cially anxious to take care of his own dignity 
and comfort takes care of nothing else. 



44 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The joy of religion is the only effectual anti- 
dote to the fatal attraction of the world that 
draws so many Church-members into its vor- 
tex. The hungry heart will seek something to 
satisfy it. If there be no joy in the Church, 
it will look for it elsewhere. Weary of the 
monotony of a mere form of religion, it will 
rush into almost any thing that will stir the 
stagnant waters of life. If there be energy, 
impulse, enthusiasm elsewhere, and only gen- 
teel deadness in the Church, it is not to be 
w T ondered at that the theater is filled and the 
prayer - meeting almost deserted, the race- 
course thronged and the class-meeting discon- 
tinued, politics exciting the multitudes to en- 
thusiasm and religion regarded as a tradition 
of past wonders rather than as the present 
glory and joy of the earth. 



When a common danger or sorrow lifts two 
men who have been alienated to a higher plane, 
then is the time for them to strike hands and 
stand together on that higher plane for all the 
future. Let him that readeth understand. 



The Christian who could not travel five miles 
over muddy roads to attend the quarterly-meet- 
ing, but went fifty miles to see a star-actor, has 
somehow inverted the relative value of things. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 45 

The time to help the enterprises of your 
Church is when you are able. There is a fear- 
ful discount on mere intentions looking to the 
future. There is no discount on duty done. 
God will bless your present benefaction to his 
cause, but he makes no promise that he will 
ratify any plan of yours that looks to future 
possibilities at the expense of present certain- 
ties in the way of opportunity for doing good. 



The aged or invalid follower of Jesus who 
is no longer able to attend the services of the 
sanctuary must not therefore conclude that 
she is of no value to the Church. The only 
condition of fruitf ulness is fidelity, and fidelity 
shines as brightly in prayerful patience as 
in energetic service. It is faithfulness, not 
strength, that wins the crown. 



The close-fisted brother who shirked pay- 
ment of his proper share toward the support 
of his preacher last year will be hardest to 
please for the next. Stinginess and fault-find- 
ing are twin uglinesses. 



It is not wise for the preacher to show his 
morbid side to his people. He is & leader, and 
must not forget it. Self-command is an indis- 
pensable requisite for leadership. 



46 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Every thing in this world has to ripen. The 
process cannot be hurried. The contrary be- 
lief makes quacks in medicine, bogus political 
economists, cheats in trade, impostors in relig- 
ion. Every law of God works for good to all 
who will let it work out its results. But whoso 
will interfere with its working and seek either 
to hurry or to obstruct will fail at the last. 



The preacher who is inwardly conscious that 
his consecration is imperfect, and his life not 
what it ought to be, will have no heart for the 
work of bringing disorderly members of his 
flock to account. The arm of Church disci- 
pline is paralyzed by pastoral delinquency. 



If you do not train your child to self-com- 
mand and systematic beneficence while young, 
do not be surprised that avarice or sensuality 
ruins him when he gets hold of money. 



He is a nominal member of the Church. 
That is the way his pastor classifies him now. 
There will be no nominal members in the 
Church triumphant. 



Laziness and cowardice are the chief hinder- 
ances to fruitfulness in many Christian lives. 
Which of the two is your weakness ? 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 47 

The Church that does not present to the 
world a spectacle of unselfish devotion" to truth 
and self-sacrificing service to humanity loses 
its hold upon the hearts of men, and sinks be- 
low the level of merely secular organizations. 
The instincts of the human soul revolt against 
an institution that claims to be inspired by the 
spirit of Jesus Christ, who though he was rich 
yet for our sakes became poor, that we through 
his poverty might become rich, while it never 
rises above the dead-level of the world. The 
scorn of men toward an unfaithful Church is 
measured by the immense difference between 
the divine ideal of what it ought to be and 
the dark and dead thing that it is. 



Truth in the sphere of religion can be vital- 
ized only by experience. To know, in the full- 
est and best sense, you must do. The faith 
that does not work is dead. The love that does 
not express itself in beneficent activities will 
become morbid and perish. The prayer that 
is not accompanied or followed by correlative 
exertion is fruitless. 

The true minister of Jesus Christ is a soul- 
saver. This does not merely mean that he gets 
persons into the Church — it means also that 
he watches over those that are in. 



48 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There is just enough friction in the itiner- 
ancy to reveal the true grain of ministerial 
timber. A broken spoke now and then shows 
where there was a flaw in the wood or a blun- 
der in the workman. But the damage is 
quickly repaired, and the wheel keeps in mo- 
tion. 

Holiness in the dim and distant future, or in 
the world of spirits, is not that to which you 
are called. God will never be more willing to 
lift you up to the heavenly heights than he is 
at this moment. 

That body of ministers which most resem- 
bles Jesus in holiness and zeal will have the 
strongest hold upon the heart of this republic, 
and will be blessed with the largest measure of 
success. 

The minister who defers beginning a needed 
work until he can be sure of ideal complete- 
ness in the results must wait until his activi- 
ties shall be employed in another sphere than 
this. . 

The attempt to excite mere emotionality in- 
stead of producing conviction of sin is a great 
error. To expect real conviction without emo- 
tion is just as foolish. 



Consciousness of short-comings and imper- 
fection will not seal the lips of an earnest man 
or woman in whose heart burns a genuine love 
for Jesus and for souls. The humility th^t 
shrinks from all self-praise is compatible with 
the courage that rebukes sin and stands up for 
Jesus. 

The perfect pastor would be as hard to find 
as the perfect people. Both pastor and people 
must be content to bear with each other's im- 
perfections and limitations. This is not the 
world of perfection, but that of preparation 
for it. _____ 

If you lend a too willing ear to the dispar- 
agements of your predecessor in the pastorate, 
be not surprised when the echo of some belit- 
tling epithet coupled with your own name 
reaches you. 

The miracle of grace that convinces the 
doubting soul is found in the patience and 
self-abnegation of the home as well as in the 
public exercises of the Church. Let your light 
shine. 

The Church that turns over its children to 
be educated by others gives a mortgage upon 
them with strong probability of foreclosure. 
4 



50 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The revival that left the Church like an ex- 
hausted battery was defective in its manage- 
ment, or lacking in the essential elements of a 
true work of grace. Never does the Church 
more need all its power than when it has had 
an ingathering of new members. A mother 
should be able to nurse her own children. 



The time comes in every human life when 
its bottom principles are revealed. When, in 
the testing hour, failure takes place, men say 
he broke down under the stress of temptation. 
Not so: the timbers were already rotten, and 
only waited the first pressure to give way. 



The new preacher is unlike his predecessor, 
but is not therefore to be excluded from your 
regard and support. You will love him when 
you know him and get used to his ways. All 
good horses are not gaited alike. 



The stingy man who covets a reputation for 
liberality has a harder time than his equally 
stingy brother who, caring nothing for popular 
opinion, only wants to save his money. 



When your presence in a prayer-meeting 
excites special remark because of its infre- 
quency, it is time for you to consider. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 51 

The man who will not bear his part of the 
expense of keeping up a secular secret society 
is suspended from its privileges and benefits. 
The man who will not bear his part of the ex- 
pense of maintaining the Church to which he 
belongs is left untouched. His case will be 
adjudicated in the highest court at the last. 



It is foolish to go to doubting or whining 
because you discover unexpected elements of 
alloy in good men. The existence of similar 
elements in yourself ought to teach you that 
a man may have many infirmities and yet be 
a true man at the core of his heart. 



The satire you uttered concerning a brother, 
with no worse motive than to air your wit, was 
repeated to him, and left a wound that will be 
sensitive to the touch of memory many days to 
come. O these idle words! 



The remedy for want of sensible and com- 
forting evidence of God's answer to prayer is— 
more prayer. The door will open and let you 
into the precious secret of the Lord. 



The "almost Christians" in many congrega- 
tions are the drift-wood rafts that impede the 
current of salvation. 



The large-hearted brother who strained a 
point to make up for the short-comings of 
his penurious neighbor opened a channel 
through which a fresh influx of light and love 
will flow into his soul. Let him not forfeit 
this blessing by inward complaint or outward 
murmuring. 

The pastor who lets half or two-thirds of the 
year pass by while he is getting ready to do 
something makes a poor figure in the yearly 
exhibit of results. He is so long taking aim 
that his game takes wing and escapes. 



The brother who paused in his work to 
engage in a controversy about matters of no 
interest to the general public violated that 
injunction of the Discipline which warns us 
against being "triflingly employed." 



A. check in carrying out his own plans is to 
a true man only a challenge to him to show his 
real metal in the exhibition of fortitude. . The 
man who despairs has a morbid spot near the 
core of his being. 

Many good men have been slandered, but 
no man has ever been permanently damaged 
except by himself. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 53 

The Judas that sells his Master always hates 
the sight of the purchase-money, and if he 
does not throw it down in scorn or despair at 
the feet of his tempters, he will be made to 
feel, sooner or later, that he has made a bad 
bargain with the devil. 



"A dead Church is a curse," said the pastor 
of McKendree. The words are true and 
weighty. The barren fig-tree cumbers the 
ground. The false light lures to shipwreck. 
It is a solemn thing to be a member of the 
Church of God. 

The preacher wdio is instrumental in the con- 
version of souls is a soul-saver. The preacher 
who builds up his flock in holiness is also a 
soul-saver. The preacher of the New Testa- 
ment pattern does both. 



Go, preach the gospel to every creature — 
except those who do not want to hear you. So 
it does not read. Those who least want it are 
those w T ho most need it from your lips. 



It were better for you to carry a deadly bod- 
ily disease than a grudge through the new year. 
Unload without delay all such burdens at the 
foot of the cross. 



54 . GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There is a solemn and awful side to human 
life and destiny, and it is startlingly vivid to 
many. Nothing but a full and joyful belief 
in the abounding mercy and grace of God, and 
an inwrought experience of it in the soul, can 
give an observing and reflecting man or woman 
cheerf ul and hopeful views of human life in 
the midst of its actual perils and sorrows. He 
that stops to think much on these things has 
need also to pray much. In the depths of his 
own believing, peaceful heart he must find the 
solution of the problem of existence, and a 
counterbalancing influence to the suggestions 
of doubt and the croakings of despondency. It 
may sound paradoxical, and yet it is true, that 
because of a lack at this point the purest, tru- 
est souls in the Church may shed around them 
an influence that repels rather than attracts 
them that are without. God be tender with 
these fearful ones who walk under a clouded 
sky all their days! He is tender with them, 
for he knoweth our frame, and will not break 
a bruised reed. He loves them because they 
are true, and he compassionates their infirmity 
and will heal it. There are many who will 
read these lines who would die for their Lordj 
who bear his cross uncomplainingly, and are 
true in every purpose and aspiration cf their 
lives, but yet lack one thing, and that is the joy 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 50 

of religion. This one element would light up 
their whole being with a brightness and beauty 
that would draw many to glorify their Father 
in heaven by the sweet compulsion of a heav- 
enly power. Two things are true: First, the 
prime object of religion in this life is not 
pleasure, but salvation; second, in the service 
of Gcd through his own appointed channel, 
the Church, is to be found the true enjoyment 
of every gocd thing that this life can give. 



The money saved by the neglect of the poor 
and ignorant and helpless is worse than thrown 
away. The law of justice and mercy will 
avenge itself in the end. This lesson is writ- 
ten in the calamities of all nations and com- 
munities that have disregarded it. 



The Church of God the enemy of pleasure ! 
As well say that the sun is the enemy of light, 
or motherhood the enemy of childhood. The 
Church is that garden of the Lord in which 
blooms and grows to ripeness every sw r eet and 
blessed thing in human life. 



God uses human agency in the conversion of 
the world. He will convert the world no faster 
than his people will do the work. Your re- 
sponsibility grows out of this fact. 



56 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Perhaps one reason why more women than 
men are religions is because the responsibility 
of training the children of the household de- 
volves more directly upon the wife and mother. 
Many a man surrenders all his time to busi- 
ness, whisky, and politics, knowing that his 
good wife is looking after the children at home. 
Parental responsibility is the last and highest 
means of moral development. The father who 
devolves this responsibility upon any other 
person not only sins against his child, but 
against his own moral nature as well. 



The laborer in the Lord's vineyard who 
makes many pauses to tell the world how hard 
he is laboring, and how many sacrifices he is 
making, loses time thereby. It is better to 
work on and leave the record to the Master. 



The preacher who trains his people to une- 
motional Christianity sometimes succeeds be- 
yond his wishes. He wants quiet and gentil- 
ity, but the result is that he finds on his hands 
a corpse that cannot be buried. 



When the membership of a Church has 
grown faster than its activities and its benefac- 
tions to the cause of Christ, let the pastor pause 
before he begins to blow his trumpet. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 57 

Whether for good or for evil, less and less 
stress is laid upon the creed, and more and 
mors upon the life. The battle for the evi- 
dences of Christianity is being fought upon the 
arena of physical science, so far as the mere 
intellectual aspects of the question are con- 
cerned. But the real contest is in the daily 
lives of men and women. A religion claiming 
a divine origin, support, and guidance must 
also exhibit heavenly fruits, or it will be re- 
jected with indignation and scorn. 



The disciples were doubtful and perplexed 
until after the Pentecost. Thenceforth they 
had the witness within them, and went forward 
to duty and to death with a faith that never 
faltered, and a joy that never failed. The full 
baptism of the Holy Spirit will give this as- 
surance to every believer now. 



Exclusivism in religion, like exclusivism in 
social life, often seems to become more arro- 
gant in proportion as it becomes more pinched 
and poverty-stricken. It makes up in pride 
what it lacks in power. 



While cunning and vanity work together, the 
multiplication of new societies will go on in 
this much-befooled-and-swindled country. 



58 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

It would be a good rule to require of every 
writer who attacks existing institutions to pro- 
pose a remedy for the evils of which he com- 
plains, or to present a substitute for the sys- 
tem he condemns. The chronic complainer is 
a nuisance. Of course nothing is perfect in 
this world. We must be content with the best 
we can get, and improve as we can. There is 
no easier way to acquire a cheap notoriety 
than by universal disparagement or denuncia- 
tion. But it is not the best way to advance 
the welfare of society. 



Guarding their children from even the 
slightest contact with the depraved elements 
of society, parents allow them companionship 
that invades the sanctities of home and turns 
the very bed-chambers of maiden innocence into 
receptacles for the vile literature that is de- 
bauching the minds of our young people. 



The little indirection employed to carry a 
point that seemed to you good in itself spoiled 
all the sweetness of success. Shun such suc- 
cesses as you would moral suicide. 



The holy exercises of heaven will come awk- 
wardly to the brother who never prayed or sung 
in the Church on earth. 



— si — eT^I — ►— i— -t- (© — ir— 

THE REAL BARRIER. 



rS it possible for a thinking man, in the 
midst of the unbelief and scoffing of these 
times, to have an unwavering faith in the 
supernatural verities of the Christian revela- 
tion, and the perfect tranquillity of spirit that 
is the result of clear and satisfying views of 
the great questions of religion? Or must we 
concede that, surrounded as we are by an at- 
mosphere of icy negation and doubt, we must 
of necessity feel its chill, and lose some part 
of the fixedness of an assured belief and the 
glow of an assured hope? 

These questions are answered by different 
persons according to their different theories of 
religion, and still more in accordance with their 
different experiences. There are many who 
have come to look upon doubt as the normal 
attitude of an honest and inquiring spirit. 
They glorify it as the badge of sincerity and 
independence. They often quote Tennyson's 
questionable lines, affirming that there is more 
faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds, 

(59) 



60 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

and are fond of the fiction and other literature 
of the day that analyzes and apotheosizes the 
struggles of miserable and morbid men and 
women who would believe if they could, but 
whose lofty souls are too sublimated to grasp 
firmly and hold joyfully the great facts and 
promises of the gospel. The poetry, the fic- 
tion, the philosophy, the science, and no small 
part of the theology of the times, are pervaded 
with this spirit; and it has come to pass that 
the doubter, instead of bewailing the condition 
that allows his feet no solid resting-place and 
blots the light of hope from his sky, actually 
felicitates himself upon the fact that he be- 
longs to the class of choice spirits who are too 
finely toned to be satisfied with the faith that 
in other days glorified the great and comforted 
the lowly ones of earth. They glory in their 
disability. This is the fashion of the times in 
many circles, and as it is a fashion that har- 
monizes with the perverse impulses of unre- 
generate human nature, it has no lack of fol- 
lowers. This was the temper of Keats, Shelley, 
and Byron, and it is now the temper of a mul- 
titude who possess their morbidness, their 
pride, their perversity, minus their genius. 

It is time to enter a protest against this 
folly, whether it be expressed in the musical 
verse of a poet, or the intricate workings of a 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 61 



modern novel of the subjective school, or the 
mock Byronics of a conceited sophomore, or 
the heroics of a silly girl who mistakes impiety 
for intellectuality, or the compromises of a too 
" liberal " pulpit that confounds the agonies of 
a striver after truth with the flippant skepti- 
cism of the inflated manikin whose doubting 
is the result of an absurd pride rather than of 
deep thinking or extensive reading. It is time 
that this solemn question were looked at in its 
true light. It is time that men and women had 
stopped toying with this tarantula of unbelief 
as if it were a butterfly. It is treated very 
differently in the word of God. Unbelief is 
there presented as an awful thing, as the sin 
of sins, the sin that severs the tie that binds 
the human soul to God and to hope. He that 
belie veth not is condemned. And this is the 
condemnation, that light has come into the 
world, and men love darkness rather than light. 
This is the assumption everywhere made in 
the Scriptures: invincible unbelief lies in an 
evil heart rather than insufficiency of evidence. 
It is the evil heart, not the bewildered head of 
unbelief, that is denounced as the obstacle to 
salvation. The organ of spiritual knowledge 
is obedience. If any man will do he shall 
know, is the law of the case and the promise 
of God. They who reverse the rule may not 



62 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

expect the fulfillment of the promise. The 
knowledge of heavenly things cannot be re- 
vealed to mere curiosity, to pride, or to disobe- 
dience. It is only to the man of a humble 
and contrite spirit that the Lord will come in 
the clear and satisfying revelations of his truth, 
and the joy-giving manifestations of his grace. 
It is not argumentation, but prayer, that the 
unbeliever needs. It is not more light on the 
external evidences of Christianity, but a direct 
movement of the soul toward God in the path 
of humble obedience. It is taste and see, not 
see and taste. This is the strait gate of en- 
trance into the kingdom of God, which is for- 
ever barred against self-will and pride, but 
opens of itself at the knock of the humble and 
contrite sinner. This is the gospel. Let it be 
proclaimed with divine authority, and enforced 
with all solemnity and tenderness by its min- 
isters. Let men no longer go on piling up 
those barriers of unbelief between their souls 
and the mercy of God by inverting the process 
of recovering grace. Let unbelievers no longer 
sleep under the delusion that it is super-intel- 
lectuality that keeps them from faith, when it 
is only the spirit of disobedience. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 63 

ENTIRE congregations are sometimes con- 
formed to the world in their atmosphere 
and methods. Their very deportment on enter- 
ing the house of God, the manner in which 
they conduct themselves during the services, 
the indefinable but unmistakable chill that 
pervades a congregation where there is some- 
what of the form but nothing of the power of 
godliness, tell the story of conformity to the 
world. It is the drawing-room in the house 
of God. It is respectability as a substitute for 
zeal and love. Such a congregation is cruci- 
fixion to a right-minded pastor. If he yields 
in any measure to its worldly influence he feels 
that he is sinking to the same level, and he 
loses his fire in the pulpit. If he resists the 
downward tendency, and antagonizes the world- 
ly conformity that pains his heart and is de- 
stroying his people, he may expect harsh criti- 
cism and opposition. Worldliness antagonizes 
whosoever and whatsoever antagonizes it, in 
the Church or out of it. You must go with it, 
or it will go against you. Nothing but the 
power of God acting through the most faithful 
human instrumentality can turn back the tide 
of worldliness when it thus takes in its sweep 
a whole body of Church-members. The hero- 
ism that attacks this worldly conformity when 
it is fortified by long indulgence, by numbers, 



64 GLIMPSES OF TBUTIL 

by respectability and wealth, is equal to that 
demanded in any field of service to which God 
can call a truly consecrated man. The wisdom 
of the serpent, the harmlessness of the dove, 
are needed for this work now. The courage 
that can withstand friends as well as enemies, 
the courage that is ready to stake popularity 
for principle, is also demanded. 



The man who gives his whole time now to 
money-seeking, purposing great things for re- 
ligion and philanthropy after he has succeeded, 
is the victim of a miserable delusion. God is 
a party to no such arrangements, and he will 
not condone present neglect of opportunity for 
a future which does not belong to you. " Go 
work to-day in my vineyard" is the command. 



One man can accomplish wonders. One man 
can arouse a whole Church. One man can turn 
the scale of victory on the side of truth. One 
man can shed light over a whole community. 
One man can stand as a pillar to support the 
cause of God in times of danger and declen- 
sion. Reader, you may be that man. 



Is the genius of the world on the side of in- 
fidelity? No. Infidelity is abnormal, weak, 
and fussy. Faith is steady, strong, and quiet. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 65 

No greater calamity can befall a man than 
the loss of faith in his fellow-man. Theories 
of human nature that make it wholly evil are 
blighting in their effects. No flower of good- 
ness or joy can bloom under the leaden sky of 
such a belief. Men who sneer at the dogma 
of total depravity as- a dogma act as if they 
believed it continually. They satirize every 
noble sentiment; they receive every record of 
generous action or self-abnegation with a smile 
of incredulity; when a good deed is done, they 
are quick to suggest a selfish motive for it. 
He is an enemy to society who holds up to 
view the dark side of human nature exclusive- 
ly. Whether that man be editor or preacher, 
lie is an enemy to society. 



True faith is serene and full of charity. He 
w T hose soul has anchored itself to rest on the 
deep, calm sea of truth does not spend his 
strength in raving against those who are still 
tossed by the winds of error. Not without rea- 
son do the " Friends " make the sign of assured 
faith an undisturbed and devout silence. 



Sins of omission are those which give the least 
pain to the conscience. In the judgment, many 
will be surprised and appalled when this side 
of their account shall be presented. 
5 



66 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

You think that because luck has been against 
you, and you are poor and in debt, harassed by 
care and burdened with anxiety, you are ab- 
solved from all obligation to extend sympathy 
or help to a distressed fellow -man. Your 
troubles, you say, are all you can carry; let 
him go to those that have been more fortu- 
nate. You are wrong: you are the very man 
who can understand the heart of trouble; you 
are the very man who can feel a sympathy that 
is genuine; you are the very man who knows 
how much good a little help will do when the 
pinch is on. If there are the elements of co- 
hesion in villainy, if the butterflies of fortune 
flutter together in the sunshine, much more 
should the children of adversity stand by one 
another. There is no freemasonry so sacred 
as that of sorrow or misfortune. 



A preacher's field of labor may sometimes be 
smaller, than his capacity, as estimated by him- 
self and his friends. But a small field enlarges 
in the hands of a large man. Arnold at Rugby 
was greater than the Chancellor at Oxford. 



Earnestness is the enemy of prolixity. A 
labored exordium is the tedious prelude to 
nothing in particular. The man who is eager 
to reach his point takes the shortest line. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 67 

The spiritual needs of man are as real as 
his bodily needs. There is no danger that the 
materialism of to-day will blot out the spiritual 
world or destroy the spiritual hopes of human- 
ity. The strong faith that holds its precious 
treasure in a firm grasp is serene, unaffected 
by the eddying gusts of conflicting opinion in 
an age of transition, and is too happy in its 
undoubting belief in God and immortality to 
feel any thing but kindness for those who do 
doubt or deny. The army that feels secure in its 
invincibility does not attempt to frighten the 
enemy by beating Chinese gongs. 



The moment a sinner comes to think a min- 
ister of the gospel is temporizing for popular- 
ity's sake, he is beyond that minister's reach 
for good. Every nature with the least spark 
of manliness prefers even honest fanaticism to 
a time-serving spirit. 



Ignorance is often more discouraging than 
willful perversity. Perversity may be fought, 
ignorance must be borne with. Invincible 
patience is rarer than indomitable pluck. 



Never stake your happiness upon any issue 
the decision of which depends upon the volition 
of other persons. 



68 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The thought is a pleasant one to us that 
when right principles are once impressed upon 
a human spirit, and holy affections enthroned 
therein, it is but rarely, if ever, that these 
treasures are wholly lost. The seed survives. 
The blossoms may fall away from the tree, but 
the root lives, and under genial influences 
sprouts afresh. The most imperishable things 
in the universe are truth and goodness. 



The semi-apologetic sort of religion that 
some men take into public life with them only 
serves to subject themselves to suspicion of 
hypocrisy. It does not disarm a foe or make 
a friend. Satan himself despises a dough-face. 



The preacher, no matter how young, whose 
talk is altogether of what he has done is in- 
fected with a spiritual dry-rot,, and will be like- 
ly to crumble to pieces under the first pressure. 



Let all earnest laborers in the Lord's vine- 
yard bear in mind that there are but two ways 
of escaping ungenerous judgment, namely, to 
rise above or sink below rivalry. 



The peace that was destroyed at the first 
breath of mis judgment by men was not the 
peace of God. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 69 

Aggressive Christianity is that which does 
its work with simple fidelity, making no ado 
about it. It is the earnest impulse, the con- 
stant activity, and the steady progress of gen- 
uine religion — nothing more nor less. Aggres- 
sion is the law of the Christian life. Keep 
that life burning in the Church by the use of 
the means of grace, and it will make no halt in 
its onward march to the conquest of the world. 



Friendship does not require us to adopt all 
the partialities and espouse all the quarrels of 
our friends, but it does demand that when a 
friend is suffering for righteousness' sake that 
we make his cause our own without waiting a 
moment. This is the chivalry of Christianity. 



The Christian mother who flatters herself 
that her daughter can give her young woman- 
hood to the world rather than to God, and not 
suffer permanent loss, has shallow views of re- 
ligion, and is ignorant of the most elementary 
principles of religious experience. 



The heads of families who are indifferent 
whether their servants have the opportunity 
to enjoy some of the privileges of the Sabbath- 
day have need to be taught both the letter 
and spirit of the fourth commandment. 



Where there are no conversions, the very air 
becomes spiritually malarious from stagnation. 
The unfruitful Bride of Christ loses her divine 
beauty, her eye grows dim, her step feeble, and 
her voice loses its sweetness. The absence of 
young life around the altars of the Church de- 
prives the family of God of the freshness, the 
energy, and the enthusiasm without which it is 
divested of half its charm and potency. 



There is a tendency in many earnest Chris- 
tian laborers to undervalue those lines of 
Christian service to which they are not spe- 
cially called. The specialist depreciates his 
brother specialist in a different line, and there- 
by does more harm than he is aware of. 



It is very convenient and economical to sub- 
stitute sentimental declamation in behalf of 
those beyond reach for practical benevolence 
toward the needy and oppressed that are with- 
in reach. Whole communities reek with this 
hypocrisy without knowing it. 



The man who waits to have his duty thrust 
upon him, so that he cannot avoid it, may wait 
a long time. Any man can find a field of serv- 
ice for the Master if he wants to find it. And 
if he does not want to find it, he will miss it. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 71 

The analysis of the constituent elements of 
bread and meat is interesting to a competent 
chemist, but to live he must eat as well as an- 
alyze. So, to read or study the Bible critically 
for the sake of exegetics and homiletics is in- 
teresting to a competent scholar, but to live and 
grow religiously he must also use the Book of 
books devotionally. 

If you want to enjoy a most delightful sur- 
prise when traveling, take a little pains and use 
a little tact for the purpose of finding a fel- 
low-disciple of Christ. There are many Phil- 
ips moving on our modern highways. 



The Church-member who expects to make a 
good impression on his preacher by disparag- 
ing his predecessor has a very slight knowl- 
edge of human nature — except the meanest 
sort of human nature. 



When the child of Christian parents hesi- 
tates to speak to father or mother on the most 
sacred of all subjects — religion — it is time to 
inquire the cause. 

The man who can work as heartily under a 
plan he did not approve as if it were his own 
is a jewel. 



72 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The man who makes himself the exponent 
of the strongest prejudice and hottest passion 
of his party is called a hero; but this sort of 
glory is as ephemeral as it is cheap. The party 
idols in Church and State melt like snow-balls 
in the blaze of posthumous judgment. It is 
only the granite of conscientious independence 
tihat will stand. . . 

The passionate cry to be made happy is 
very often an ill-disguised selfishness. And 
often, when men think that they have their 
answer and their blessing, there is delusion 
and damage. It is so easy to mistake getting 
happy for substantial religious progress. It 
is as often followed by spiritual exhaustion as 
invigoration. . . 

The Christian heart surcharged with the love 
of Christ is a magnet. It attracts opportunity 
for doing good at all times and under all cir- 
cumstances. Demagnetized, it is a dead and 
fruitless thing. The only condition of perpet- 
ual and abundant f ruitf ulness is union with the 
true Vine. . 

What gift can be too precious, what service 
too arduous, for the Church which, under God, 
was the agent of your conversion and that of 
your children? 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 73 

It is an inquiry worthy of a Christian man's 
consideration whether it is not true that the 
laxity of the Church in meeting its obligations 
to its pastors does not react disastrously upon 
the morals of the public at large. The Church 
ought to be the most punctual and exact of all 
bodies in the discharge of all financial obliga- 
tions. 

God is constantly reminding the Church that 
it must walk by faith in all its labors for the 
evangelization of the world. Its greatest suc- 
cesses have been surprises to the half-asleep 
masses. Its greatest disappointments have 
followed the greatest preliminary flourishes of 
trumpets. 

"When a politician who is a Church-member 
is found guilty of crime, he is treated with pe- 
culiar severity by the partisan and independ- 
ent press. This is right. He makes higher 
professions than other men, and it is proper 
to hold him to them. 



If that book in which are written the names 
of those who have indeed passed from death 
unto life could be seen and compared with the 
registers of the visible Church, pride would 
give way to penitence and prayer in many 
hearts 



74 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The man who talks infidelity on the streets, 
and patronizes infidel literature, would be hor- 
rified if his wife were to teach the same senti- 
ments to his children at home. His conjugal 
and paternal instincts revolt against what his 
evil mind leads him to half hope to be true. 



The Christian magnanimity that does not 
disparage a rival, even when that rival is suc- 
cessful, is rare. But it exists. The conflicts 
of interest and ambition in this life are intend- 
ed by God to put this finishing touch upon 
Christian character. 



There are many Christians who curtail their 
contributions for the gospel when their finan- 
cial matters do not turn out as well as they 
expected. But do they make a corresponding 
increase when they turn out better? 



We have not yet seen the man who could 
wholly overcome the influence of his "environ- 
ments," to use a current expression, in modify- 
ing his views, and his likes and dislikes. Let 
us be tolerant toward one another. 



If change of residence exposes a person to 
new temptations, it just as often brings fresh 
opportunities. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 75 

Softly, bleeding and burning heart! Your 
experience is not exceptional. All around you 
there are others traveling the same path with 
you. It is the path of real sorrow. It is the 
way our fathers trod. It is the path in which 
we find the footsteps of Jesus. You belong to 
the blessed company of the elect in virtue of 
your faith in the crucified One, and sorrow is 
the badge of your membership. It is the pe- 
culiarity of real sorrow that it strikes where it 
hurts most. The one bitterest element in your 
trouble is that which is intended to lead you to 
the fullness of the blessing in God. The in- 
tensity of the burning pain in your heart will, 
if you draw not back, bring you closer to the 
tender, loving Christ, who will draw you to his 
bosom and give you his peace. 



The fact that a pastor's salary, according to 
popular opinion and usage, is not collectable 
by legal compulsion, furnishes a strong reason 
why a fine-toned Christian man will be the 
more certain to pay his part of it. It is a debt 
both of conscience and honor. 

It is only the modesty of the "advanced 
thinkers" who say we must have an "expur- 
gated" Bible that prevents them from writing 
a new Bible altogether. 



76 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

No human life can be kept pure and whole- 
some without the element of self-sacrifice. 
The very wish to avoid it takes the light and 
the music out of existence. God in his mercy 
has so ordained our relationships and obliga- 
tions that this healing branch is cast into the 
Marah-waters of our wilderness-journey, and 
they are made sweet. The conflict with the 
evil that is in the world; the hardness and 
enmity that try the patience and exercise the 
charity of the servants of God; the wayward- 
ness and folly that make anxiety, anguish, and 
midnight tears in our homes, are all in the plan 
and method by which the soul of the believer 
grows in the life of God. 



A man may be very " liberal " in his opin- 
ions, as liberality is now estimated, and yet be 
very ungenerous and discourteous in his treat- 
ment of honest men who have a constitutional 
bias toward strict construction and conserva- 
tism. It is a bogus liberality that expends its 
force in sneering at orthodoxy. 



True self-denial sometimes means that you 
must moderate morbid grief — that is, you must 
deny yourself the luxury of nursing a sorrow 
that makes you less helpful to others near you 
who are also bearing heavy burdens. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 11 

Humility is the child of knowledge. Pride 
is the offspring of ignorance and superficiality. 
The atmosphere of a Christian college or uni- 
versity is killing to conceit. The first lesson 
it teaches to the teachable is the limitations of 
human thought. The young man who leaves 
such an institution inflated with vanity is or- 
ganically a fool, and would have tried the pa- 
tience and excited the disgust of sensible peo- 
dle all the same had he never trod the halls 
of liberal learning. 

David challenged all that feared the Lord 
to come and hear what had been done for his 
soul. He proposed no parade of his own good- 
ness or greatness. So a Christian who testifies 
to the sufficiency of grace to sanctify and save 
glorifies not himself but his Master. 



Christians must not be deterred from think- 
ing and speaking about holiness because of 
mistakes or infirmities in any of its special 
advocates. It is a blessing to be sought, a 
goal to be attained, by every believer. 



What some call persecution: To make con- 
tinual assaults upon others until one of the 
assailed deals in return a blow that hurts, and 
sets the aggressor whining. 



78 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The bogus Christian charity that gushes in 
honeyed words when there is no practical test 
of its genuineness, and breaks down under the 
first strain, has often brought reproach upon 
the name of Christ in these United States. 
The sudden transformation of an evangelical 
lamb into a partisan wolf inspires a manly sin- 
ner with disgust and doubt. 



The cold-blooded professor of religion who 
maintained during the revival services the 
attitude of a spectator and critic felt greatly 
dissatisfied with himself and everybody else at 
the close. No function is allotted to mere 
spectators and critics in the Church of Christ; 
to such no blessing is promised. 



It is a lamentable fact that some Christian 
men will secretly approve a virulence and 
coarseness on the part of co-partisans of which 
they would scorn to be g irilty themselves. They 
possess not more conscientiousness or refine- 
ment, but more caution — that is all. 



Forgive the malignant and pity the mis- 
guided among your enemies, and reenter your 
Master's service with renewed consecration, 
and your life will rebloom in new joy and 
fruitfulness. This is for whom it is written. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 79 

The traveler who jumps out of his wagon 
every five minutes to examine whether or not 
something is wrong with his vehicle or har- 
ness will lose much time. The laborer in the 
Lord's vineyard falls into a similar error when 
he is perpetually pausing in his work to criti- 
cise the methods to which he is committed by 
his vows as a minister of Jesus Christ. 



The high-tide of Christian sympathy in a 
time of calamity sweeps away the barriers of 
sectariau exclusiveness: at low-tide they are 
re erected. When our Lord's sacerdotal prayer 
for the unity of his people shall be fulfilled, 
it will be high-tide all the time. 



The orchard that is not replenished by fresh 
plantings from the nursery will perish. The 
orchard that is left unpruned will lose its fruit- 
fulness and value. The two processes must 
go on without ceasing in the Church. 



The method that reaches the people and 
brings them to Jesus is a good method, wheth- 
er it is the one you like best or not. 



We are all opposed to personal defamation 
in politics — unless it be defamation of the can- 
didates on the other side. 



80 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

A father, on returning home, was met by 
his little girl, who said: "Father, I am so glad 
to see you! Did you bring me any thing?" 
Should we not sometimes approach God and 
delight in him on account of what he is in 
himself, as well as on account of what he does 
for us? Let us look at the Godward side of 
our religion. 

A man who sits down to hunt for a sound 
spot in a tainted joint of meat must be very 
hungry, or good meat must be scarce with him. 
So the professed Christian who goes upon the 
enemy's ground to get a little doubtful pleas- 
ure must be very hungry for enjoyment, or 
must know very little of the pure pleasures of 
religion. 

The old preacher does not always find that 
the tender consideration of the people he served 
in the days of his prime increases as health 
and strength fail. Ingratitude is a hideous 
thing, whether exhibited by natural or spirit- 
ual children. 

The pastor who weakens in the presence of 
a Church difficulty sends weakness down all 
along the lines of his forces. He may survive 
the unmerited opposition of his people, but not 
their contempt. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 81 

If there is conscious selfish alloy in the mo- 
tive with which you begin the labors of a re- 
vival-meeting, lie at the feet of Jesus until the 
evil leaven is banished — and then, O brother, 
you will feel the breath of power and have the 
tongue of flame. __ 

The man who adopts the modern nonsense 
that the Bible is inspired " in spots " feels like 
a boy skating on a pond with patches of, thin 
ice here and there. He is afraid to move. The 
true believer feels that under his feet is the 
solid rock. 

The Christian man who, when he goes to a 
new place to live, uses at once his business-let- 
ter but carries his Church-letter until it is worn 
out or obsolete, show^s plainly enough where 
his heart is. 

That is a wonderful climax in the descrip- 
tion of a good man where it is said he shall 
not be afraid of evil tidings. That was Old 
Testament faith. Have you reached this 
height? 

You resisted the impulse to give expression 
to your sympathy for one in affliction or peril 
for fear of being obtrusive. Now it is too late. 
The person is forever beyond your reach. 
6 



Resistance to a peace-making impulse causes 
the heart to harden into a more incorrigible ob- 
duracy. The blessing promised to the peace- 
maker is not only forfeited for the time being, 
but its attainment at any future time is rendered 
more difficult. 

Strong government is inseparable from rev- 
olutionary danger and dread. • If it does not 
find them already existing, it makes them. 
Sooner or later the slumbering volcanoes of 
individual resentment and popular wrath will 
explode. 

" This one thing I do" said Paul. Put the 
emphasis on the word do. He stuck to one 
thing, and did it. Had he wasted his efforts 
on a dozen things, none of them would have 
been done. 

Are you one of those inconsistent Christians 
who blaze with wrath when Nihilists and other 
infidels assail the Sabbath-day, and yet devote 
the larger part of it to secular reading and 
feasting? 

An ocean of excited political declamation is 
better than a sea of blood. The very extrava- 
gance of free speech within the limits of the 
law is the safeguard of liberty. 



.gn^^^-^z 



BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING. 



& I © 



FO say outright that worry is a sin would 
jar upon some sensitive spirit. Evil 
foreboding is a distinct symptom of some 
forms of disease. Robust health is often in- 
sensible to actual perils ; imaginary ones rarely 
cast their shadows upon its path. But in the 
midst of the friction and discord of the world 
many really good people live in almost perpet- 
ual apprehension and discomfort. There is 
trouble in their nerves, whatever may be the 
state of their hearts. These thorns in the flesh 
afflict them sorely. Some, like Paul, are driv- 
en to their knees in prayer for relief; others 
are thrown into a feverish and chronic disqui- 
etude that grows upon them until it becomes 
the trial and trouble of their unhappy lives. 
Harsh speech concerning such as these would 
be unjust condemnation of many of the Lord's 
children who must bear this cross of suffering. 
In such cases grace may alleviate the difficulty 
and lighten the burden; but it is organic in 
the constitution, and will be laid aside only 

(83) 



84 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

when mortality puts on immortality. We must 
avoid judging ourselves or others too harshly. 
We must not put human infirmity in the cate- 
gory of sin. The word of God recognizes the 
difference. 

But, on the other hand, there are anxieties 
that have their root in a lack of faith in 
God, and are therefore to be shunned as sin- 
ful. Against this sort of anxiety was directed 
the injunction, " Be careful for nothing." 
This precept does not condemn a reasonable 
prevision for the future. Nor does it condemn 
rational solicitude concerning whatever affects 
the material and spiritual interests of our own 
lives and those of our friends. But it does 
condemn that distrust of the providence of 
God which makes us sink under the burden 
of the afflictions, losses, or disappointments of 
life. 

The Christian who is doing his whole duty 
has no right to be gloomy. Such a state of 
mind is a contradiction of his avowed belief. 
It is saying that all things do not work to- 
gether for good to them that love God. It is 
proclaiming that the professed disciple of the 
Lord Jesus Christ stands on the same level with 
the world, that he has no rock of defense against 
despair, no light in darkness, no reserve of di- 
vine force within that gives him songs in the 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 85 

night. Now, the man who is truly living the 
new life, and has Christ formed within him the 
hope of glory, has something more than belief 
in the God of providence. He knows. It is 
written on the fleshly tables of his heart that 
God is good. It is an inwrought persuasion 
of his renewed soul. Like Abraham, he knows 
God in such a way that he submits to his will 
in the face of apparent contradiction and in- 
surmountable difficulty. Like Job, he says, 
" Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 
With the psalmist, he is not afraid of evil ti- 
dings. He does not tremble in opening a tele- 
graphic dispatch. He does not torture his 
soul with forebodings of possible disaster to 
those nearest and dearest to him. Like Paul, 
he can rejoice in tribulations. Like James, he 
counts it joy when he grapples with the trials 
and temptations of. life, because he not only 
believes that all things work together for good 
to them that love God, but he feels it deep 
down in his trusting and loving heart. He 
has the witness in himself. He knows the 
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. 
There is no worry in such a life as this. It 
is anchored in the still waters of God's ever- 
lasting love. 

The Christian who has not reached this 
point has yet a secret of the Lord to learn. 



86 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



He who has learned it — and there are many 
of the elect who have graduated into this 
knowledge — has left the region of worry, and 
his peace is as a river. 




GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 87 

TT7HE Church was a witnessing Church at 
A * the start. Wherever planted, there were 
as many witnessing voices as there were be- 
lievers. A single convert fresh from the Pen- 
tecost kindled a blaze wherever he went. The 
apostles had as many helpers as converts. 
The mighty joy overflowed the channels of con- 
ventionalism, swept away the prescriptions of 
priestcraft, and from Antioch to the farthest 
limit of apostolic evangelization, the voice of a 
witnessing Church was heard, and the melody 
of its songs was as the sound of many waters. 
It was the Pentecost in detail. It was the 
Pentecost perpetuating itself. It was the Pen- 
tecostal wave flowing on over the world. The 
voice of the whole Church gave expression to 
the faith and hope and joy that were in its 
heart. Every gift was exercised. Teaching, 
exhortation, interpretation, song, prayer — all 
the gifts that give variety, attractiveness, in- 
structiveness, and power to the Church as an 
agency for bringing men to Christ — were em- 
ployed according as God had dealt to every 
man the measure of faith and the gift of ut- 
terance. 

The true man finds his true vocation. The 
vocation is in him, not in the conditions created 
by other men. 



A grudge will lie unsuspected in the heart 
for years until its object exposes himself to a 
telling blow, which is delivered with an alac- 
rity that is a revelation to the one who has so 
long carried the sleeping serpent in his bosom. 
The judgment-day will bring terrible surprises 
to many who neglect self-examination at this 
vital point. , 

We have noticed that when a seeker of re- 
ligion is able to formulate his prayers in Bible 
language he is sooner brought to see the truth 
and lay hold of it. There are no words like 
God's words. . 

If you seek a voluntary alliance with those 
whose influence will make it harder for you to 
live a true life, the sin is your sin, and the loss 
will be your less. . 

Are your daily habits of devotion less regu- 
lar than those you would expect one of our 
missionaries to teach a Chinese convert? 



You did not seek for distinction, but now 
that it has come unsought, beware lest it prove 
a snare to you. . 

A Christian man has no more right to hoard 
his learning than he has to hoard his money. 



Your thought that if you could live your 
life over again you would do better is a de- 
lusion. You might escape some of the dangers 
you have met and from which you have suf- 
fered, but others would meet you, and the 
foolish heart that led you astray once would do 
it again. 

Brother preacher, is your ideal of a holy life 
lower now than it was when, standing before 
the Bishop and your brethren, you answered 
affirmatively the question, "Are you going on 
to perfection? " 

The brother who put on the brakes while the 
Church was making a tight pull uphill was 
ill-timed in his action. He would have done 
better had he pushed or pulled along with the 
others. 

If you pray for holiness, and then fail to 
watch against whatever is opposed to it, your 
pretense of prayer will go the way of all insin- 
cerity — it will not reach the prayer-hearing 
God. 

The reserve force in Christianity has never 
failed to show itself in any crisis of its histo- 
ry, and it never will — because God is the pre- 
server and defender of his own cause. 



90 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

If our missionaries in heathen lands should 
prove as indiscriminating in the reception and 
retention of Church-members as are many of 
our pastors at home, the type of evangelization 
in such heathen lands will be very low. 



Preach a risen, reigning Christ. You have 
not time to stop and dispute with every crank 
who attacks Moses. The attitude of a live 
Christianity is not apologetic, but aggressive. 



In a personal controversy there is sure to 
come a time when the magnanimous instinct 
will assert itself in a generous disputant. It 
is always safe to act upon that instinct. 



Converted — what then? If a true conver- 
sion, service for Christ in his Church. Lose 
not a day in lodging that conviction in the head 
and heart of every young convert. 



To make a real start in higher Christian liv- 
ing would require a readjustment of your social 
relations. Nevertheless, make that start now 
— it will soon be too late. 



The physical disability that curbs your too 
ardent spirit is the brake you need in passing 
certain dangerous places on the road. 




When you discover that a man in whom you 
believed has done a mean thing, do not con- 
clude that he is all bad, and that nobody is 
true. Perhaps he is repenting already. At 
any rate, be sure there are others in the world 
who abhor meanness as much as you do. 



The preacher who was nervous about his ap- 
pointment was noji necessarily lacking in fealty 
to Methodism. The soldier who turns pale at 
the beginning of the battle is often the man 
who is first inside the intrenchments of the foe. 



• As the elements combine for the destruction 
of exclusivism in religion, by the perverse law 
of its being it becomes more and more exclu- 
sive. Its great swelling ( words of vanity are 
mingled with the death-rattle in its throat. 



To expect salvation otherwise than by God's 
way is not only presumption, but absurdity. 
God is not to be trifled with. His love to sin- 
ners is great, but he gives no promise of mercy 
to self-will and pride. 



The most potent factor in true Christian 
culture is the constant necessity for th.e exer- 
cise of the will in making choice of the right 
in the midst of temptations to go wrong. 



The complaint is often made that Christian 
men are visited with harsher judgment than 
others for wrong-doing. It will be an evil day 
for Christianity when this ceases to be so — it 
will show that professed Christians in practice 
have sunk to the level of the world. 



If you have attempted a sort of compromise 
with your Lord, making secret reservations in 
your consecration, do not be surprised if in 
some moment of spiritual illumination, when 
you see yourself as you are, your peace shall 
prove to be a false peace. 



When you get an unexpected harsh criticism 
from one you thought was your friend, first 
ask yourself whether or not the criticism was 
just; measure the degree and permanence of 
your resentment afterward. 



If you experience joyful fervors in devo- 
tional exercises, and yet lack serenity and 
sweetness of spirit amid the cares and collis- 
ions of actual life, you must take another de- 
gree in Christian living. 



When a true man finds that the enemies of 
the Church applaud him and that its friends 
grieve, he will pause and take careful bearings. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 93 

The Christian women of to-day are doing the 
very work done by them when Phebe, Priscil- 
la, Dorcas, and others, were exponents of gos- 
pel truth, and living examples of its divine 
power. Woman's work for Christ in this day 
is a restoration, not an innovation. 



Two things should be avoided by Christians: 
Confounding their infirmities with willful sin, 
on the one hand, and a frittering away of the 
meaning of the vast number of Scripture-texts 
which promise victory over sin, on the other. 



The preacher who builds a house of worship 
for the Lord builds a monument for himself 
more durable than marble or brass. The man 
who never builds up any thing will have his 
name printed in the Minutes. 



It seems strange to you that you have been 
kept on one line of Christian service when you 
have all the time preferred another. Never 
mind. The current that bears you on flows as 
God would have it. 



The prodigal who "comes to himself," and 
yet delays his return to his Father, incurs 
danger of perishing with the swine. It is an 
awful thing to trifle with a clear conviction. 



94 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

It is sickening to hear so many Christian 
men of large means wishing that some very 
rich man would do this or that for the great 
enterprises of education, benevolence, and evan- 
gelization. Full-handed pauperism is doubly 
contemptible. __ 

The joy of religion can be possessed only by 
him who discharges its duties. If sought as 
the end of a religious profession it eludes the 
grasp of the deluded professor who has not 
learned the first letter of the alphabet of salva- 
tion. 

To allow the laws against gambling and oth- 
er vices to remain a dead-letter is to do a double 
mischief — the public morals are sacrificed and 
the sanctity of law obliterated from the minds 
of the people. 

The spectacle of a living preacher in awful 
earnest will do more to arouse an apathetic 
community than a hundred descriptions of 
dead men who were earnest while they were 
living. 

The cooling process in red-hot political re- 
formers may be measured by their remoteness 
from the people and proximity to the sources 
of political corruption. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 95 

There is a class of thoughtless men who 
sneer at the Church, but they would be very 
sorry to see the sixteen millions of believers 
in these United States disbanded, and as many 
imported atheists take their places. Be care- 
ful, gentlemen; do not tear down the house 
that shelters you. 

Simultaneous with the increased activity of 
women in the service of the Church, there is 
a manifest decline in the movement to carry 
them into politics. This is a significant and 
encouraging fact. 

The selfishness of the man who wants the 
place you are seeking excites your disgust or 
indignation. Perhaps he reciprocates your 
feeling. And perhaps you both are grieving 
the Master. 

High intellectual culture does not foster 
pride, but humility. True learning discovers 
the limitations of the human intellect, and is 
the happy companion of faith in the illimita- 
ble God. 

The devil and his publishing agents are turn- 
ing education itself into a curse. While we 
multiply schools let us multiply good books 
and periodicals. 



96 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The indwelling Christ does not give new 
mental faculties nor solve all the mysteries of 
the universe; but he does give what is worth 
more than all — peace. That satisfies now. The 
fuller light will come by and by — and we can 
wait. 

Your prayer is a small thing and weak in 
itself, but it makes a channel for Omnipotence. 
Then go with your burdened heart to God, and 
pray, and faint not. 

The faith that saves is not a comprehensive 
grasp of a great number of correlated princi- 
ples and facts, but laying hold of an almighty 
personal Saviour. 

It is a good thing for a Christian man to be 
subjected to hostile criticism at times. It tests 
his temper, and may reveal to him unsuspected 
weakness. 

The influence of a faithful Christian 'life 
either reproves or attracts every soul touched 
by it. The life that does neither is not a Chris- 
tian life. 

The good hunter does not wait until he sees 
his game before he begins to load his gun; bat 
the unstudious, indolent preacher does. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 97 

If you think the missionary to the heathen 
had a call to his work, and that your work is 
left to hap-hazard or caprice, you make a mis- 
take that will take from your life its unity, its 
sweetness, its joy. 

When you take a young person into the 
Church unconverted, and only superficially 
convicted., do not be surprised when he seeks 
his pleasures on the world's ground instead of 
Christ's. 

The discovery of unexpected alloy in one in 
near relation to you is a call to you to be truer 
and stronger. That soul is pivoted on your 
influence. 

The hideousness that begins to reveal itself 
in a wicked old age is an awful premonition 
of the consequences of eternal separation from 
God. 

If you wait for company in your upward 
movement in the Christian life, you may not 
start at all. The multitude are going the other 
way. 

The emotional element in the religion of 
our fathers was conspicuous, and so also was 
their strong common sense. 



98 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Every Christian must decide for himself the 
best way for him to become a peace-maker, 
but he must work to that end in some way with 
earnest purpose, or forfeit the highest blessed- 
ness — namely, to be called a child of God. 



Twenty times a day is the quality of your 
religion practically tested in your intercourse 
with your business or home circle. You are a 
" living epistle," and every moment a page is 
visible to watchful eyes. 



At the very last you purpose to let go your 
besetting sin — it is too dear to you to be given 
up sooner. This means that you will carry its 
guilt with you into eternity. You must choose 
while choice is free. 



This is the Pentecostal dispensation; and 
yet when we w r ould consider displays of the 
power of God we look back eighteen centuries. 



When you are to lead others in prayer, it 
does not mean that you are to pray at them, or 
argue with them. Your prayer is to God. 



Faith is practical choice. If you stop short 
of actual choice, you may call it desire or aspi- 
ration, but it is not faith. Choose. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 99 

Holiness is not found at the end of a long 
controversy, but at the foot of the cross, where, 
by the exercise of a mighty faith, the soul, re- 
nouncing sin and worldliness in all their forms, 
receives then and there the fullness of God. 



If your object is reformation instead of def- 
amation, you will first make your criticism or 
accusation in private rather than in public. 



The injury you often recall to mind has not 
been fully forgiven. True forgiveness is at- 
tended with at least partial forgetfulness. 



With some families family worship means a 
prayer when the preacher comes— that is, if 
the preacher is one of the praying sort. 



A few w T ords spoken to the new member of 
the Church now will do more good than many 
regrets after he has gone astray. 



Do not condemn and reject a man for a sin- 
gle blunder. Had this rule been adopted with 
you, where would you be now? 



Because another preaches holiness in a way 
that you do not like, is that a reason why you 
should not preach it at all ? 



The dancing Church-members are not ex- 
pected at the weekly prayer - meeting. The 
praying Church-menibers are not expected at 
the dance. Everybody has a practical under- 
standing of these things. 



If there be no carnal temper to catch fire, 
the flame of enmity will go out of itself. The 
man whose nature is a tinder-box will always 
be burning in a world like this. 



The touch-stone is Jesus Christ. If you 
deliberately reject him now, a future probation 
is the dream of folly and presumption. 



In your disposition to evade personal respon- 
sibility for your own sins, is there not an ele- 
ment of meanness as well as of folly? 



You travel on Sunday to save a day for sec- 
ular work. Put it down as a certainty that it 
is a day lost, not gained. 



The man who really has the mind of Christ 
is more interested in the spread of the gospel 
than in any thing else. 



The great moral issue that gets a hearing in 
one canvass will get a victory in the next. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 101 

It is unquestionably true that the distribu- 
tion of reputation and emolument among the 
ministers of the Lord Jesus is not in every 
case proportioned exactly to the measure of 
talent possessed and the amount of labor per- 
formed. But what of that? Are reputation 
and emolument the things sought? And does 
not the day hasten when the righteous Judge 
will himself distribute crowns of rejoicing and 
every man be rewarded according to his work? 
The true man can afford to labor and wait. 



These are the last days in which is fulfilled 
the prophecy that the Spirit of the Lord shall 
be poured out upon all flesh. This is the Pen- 
tecostal period. The Holy Spirit, proceeding 
from the Father and the Son, has come into 
the world — and he has come to stay. The first 
grand Pentecostal outpouring was not a me- 
teor-flash across the midnight heavens, but the 
rising of the sun to shine through all the day. 
That sun is still shining. 



The aspiration of a Christian in the line of 
spiritual progress cannot go beyond the meas- 
ure of possible attainment. The struggles and 
delays that sometimes discourage the impatient 
soul make the very attrition by which it is pol- 
ished to reflect perfectly the image of Christ. 



102 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

A Christian father who does not pray in his 
family would feel awkward in the presence of 
his converted child, whose young heart is glow- 
ing in its first love and filled with prayer and 
praise. The mother whose worldliness and 
waywardness of temper make her conscious 
that she is not adorning the doctrine of God 
her Saviour would not know what to do with 
a child whose heart was burning with love to 
Jesus, and whose conscience was tender and 
true. This may not be a conscious motive, but 
we doubt not that in many cases it enters into 
the opposition or indifference of parents con- 
cerning the conversion of their children. Par- 
ents whose own spiritual life burns low cannot 
be expected to have strong faith in behalf of 
their children. 

Some men seem to have a talent for being 
persecuted. They spend their lives in pro- 
testing against the non-appreciation of their 
contemporaries, and in defending themselves 
against persecution, real or imaginary. This 
is surely a poor way for a Christian man to 
spend his life. 

Christian liberality is not communism. In 
order that there may be good neighbors, it is 
not necessary to abolish the family relation. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 103 

Communism, agrarianism, and similar theo- 
ries, have no support from New Testament 
teaching, but we may rest assured that when 
the principle of unselfish regard for the poor 
and the ignorant, inculcated therein, is disre- 
garded, all these monsters will lift their hide- 
ous heads from the depths of human wrong 
and wretchedness. 

Now and then you meet a man who can do 
justice to another who crosses the path of his 
interest. When you find such a man take him 
to your heart — such are not met often in a life- 
time. It is only the full development of the 
Christian spirit that raises human nature to 
this height. 

He who does not enjoy religion may ques- 
tion whether he possesses it. The true be- 
liever relishes all the duties and devotions that 
belong to the Christian life. Healthy spiritual 
life is happy life. The servant may obey from 
fear; the son obeys in the joyous freedom of 
love. 

Do not preachers and writers on moral and 
religious topics err when in warning young peo- 
ple against vice they tax their powers in de- 
scribing its fascinations? Thus young people 
are started to hell through curiosity. 



104 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The Good Shepherd who commanded us to 
feed his lambs would have them fed in the 
fold, not outside. A Church from which all 
children are excluded would be a monstrous 
thing. If some may be admitted, why not all 
who are willing to come? Who would dare to 
forbid them ? Who will say that the child shall 
not kneel by the side of its father and mother 
at the altar of the Church? Invite the chil- 
dren to Jesus. Bring them into his Church. 
They have a right to come. They are needed 
there. The Church is as incomplete as the 
family would be without them. 



When the country-church is open only once 
a month, and the whisky-shop in sight is open 
every day and every night, it will not be strange 
if the devil's work should enlarge and the Lord's 
diminish. The cross-roads whisky-den is Sa- 
tan's recruiting-office and base of operations. 



The people are not always infallible in their 
impulses, but now and then, when some deep 
moral instinct is appealed to, they move with 
the irresistibility of a tidal-wave. 



The question of holiness cannot be post- 
poned. Postponement is rejection. Delay is 
disobedience. Have you thought of this? 



Covetousness is a snake that comes out of 
its hole when the sun shines. The man who 
seemed content to make a comfortable living, 
and was ready, out of his scant earnings, to 
give his quota to religion or benevolence, when 
he, by some lucky chance, got a taste of accu- 
mulation, suddenly developed a greed for gain 
that astonished all his friends. It mastered 
his whole nature. It became a fire that con- 
sumed his religious life. The man who had 
food and raiment, and therewith was content, 
as soon as he had gotten a little more than 
these, seemed to be insatiable. 

Christianity has had to fight for every inch 
of ground it has won. It will have to fight 
for every inch it will win hereafter. The world 
may tolerate and smile upon a sham piety, but 
it is only the renewed heart that loves, or can 
love, genuine godliness. 



The cotton or corn or tobacco field is not so 
dangerous to a white man's health as the cross- 
roads whisky-shop. But some who are terribly 
afraid of the former have no dread of the latter. 



When you review at night your conduct for 
the day, do not forget to consider your sins of 
omission. 



106 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



The sorrow of the world worketh death. 
George Eliot represents a peculiarly unhappy 
man as saying: "Continual suffering had an- 
nihilated religious faith within me; to the ut- 
terly miserable — the unloving and the unloved 
■ — there is no religion possible, no worship but 
a worship of devils." This is the fatal experi- 
ence of many, but in every case it is owing to 
the fact that the sufferer turned away from 
God, refusing blessedness because pleasure 
was denied him. This may sound harsh to 
some readers, but it is true. 



There are constitutional whiners who cannot 
be cured. They must be pitied and endured. 
But there are whiners who were born for bet- 
ter things, but have, unconsciously, fallen into 
the weak and unmanly habit. Such may be 
cured. Prescription: Prayer in faith. 



Are all Christians stewards of all they pos- 
sess? Then there are many who will be per- 
plexed at the great day when asked under what 
head they placed some of their expenditures. 



The Christian reverence that defers to age 
and eminence is not more beautiful than the 
Christian courtesy that takes no advantage of 
modesty and timidity. 



HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS. 



\ I /HE religion of the cloister lias given way 
^ I fa to the religion of the street. Mysticism 
has had its day. The saints that saw 
visions of heaven and prayed all night have 
given way to the saints that found societies to 
take care of sick and impotent folk, orphan 
children, and dumb animals. The change is 
not altogether a bad one. It is well that Chris- 
tianity should resume its function as the friend 
and benefactor of man on earth as well as his 
guide to heaven. Giving the promise of the 
life that now is as well as of that which is 
to come, it is but right that she should make 
that promise good by using the resources at 
her command to lighten the burdens and heal 
the wounds of a broken and suffering hu- 
manity. 

There is a phase of Christian character 
known as heavenly-mindeclness to which all 
believers are called, and to which all may at- 
tain. What is it, and what are the means of 
its attainment? To such as will pause long 

(107) 



108 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

enough to follow us in this inquiry we will 
respond in a few words. 

To be heavenly-minded the thoughts must 
be directed to heavenly things. The carnal 
mind destroyed, the spiritual mind is estab- 
lished. The new world of spiritual light and 
beauty is brought within the range of the puri- 
fied vision of all who have tasted of the heaven- 
ly gift and been made partakers of the heavenly 
calling. The spiritual mind discerns spiritual 
things, and is ravished with their loveliness. 
The beauty of holiness is revealed to the pure 
in heart. Henceforth his conversation is in 
heaven. The sublime truths of revelation fill 
the measure of his thought, and its blessed 
promises fill the measure of his hopes. These 
things grow upon him. They cheer his heart. 
They inspire fortitude to endure and strength 
to do. Limited as he is by earthly conditions, 
jarred and pained by earthly discords, he finds 
infinite consolation in the promise and hope 
of the perfection of being and blessedness 
that awaits the people of God. The divine 
ideal attracts, exalts him. Planted in the soil 
of this rough world, the fair flower of his spir- 
itual life catches the beams of the eternal Sun 
of righteousness, and takes on the hues and 
exhales the odors of heaven. Seeing God as 
he discloses himself to the spiritual eye, he 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 109 

becomes like him, being changed into the same 
image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of 
the Lord. This is heavenly - mindedness — 
heaven in the mind, heaven in the thoughts. 
This is heaven on earth, the foretaste of the 
fullness of the glory that shall be revealed in 
him at the manifestation of the sons of God. 

Thinking thus on heavenly things, they take 
possession of the heart. Sought as the chosen 
treasure of the soul, this choice of the will car- 
ries the entire moral nature with it. Its whole 
movement is Godward. The affections are set 
on things above, not on things on the earth. 
The heart yearns for heaven. Willing to remain 
here to work for Christ, the heavenly-minded 
believer feels it is better to depart and be with 
Christ. Yes, far better. It is an exchange of 
imperfection for perfection. This is the con- 
summation short of which no Christian heart 
can be satisfied. For this consummation the 
longing increases as the believer grows in 
knowledge and grace. As the goal is neared 
the racer becomes more eager for the prize. 
This is heavenly-mindedness — heaven in the 
desires, heaven in the hopes, heaven in the 
longings of the believing heart. 

And herein is a mystery of grace. The 
heavenly-minded believer is at once equipped 
for the duties of this life and ready plumed 



110 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

for his upward flight. The image of such a 
one is before us as we write — a holy Christian 
woman, whose beautiful life was the joy and 
whose ministries had blessed two generations 
of the family circle and the Church to which 
she belonged. Her human love was fresh and 
sweet to the last; her affection was responsive 
to that which she inspired in all who knew her: 
little children loved her, and she entered freely 
into all their little joys and griefs. And yet 
she longed for heaven, and counted the days 
that kept her here. This sweet-souled child 
of God yearned for the perfect vision, and the 
bridal-day of her soul was the day of her 
death. The heavenly mind had sweetened her 
life on earth and made it fruitful, and fitted 
her for her change. The heavenly-minded are 
the fruitful. 






GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. Ill 

SUE children are moral agents as we are, 
and, after we have done all we can do, 
they may harden their hearts, stiffen their 
necks, and take the wrong path. It is well to 
see this clearly, and admit it; for it is so. To 
deny it would be to transfer the responsibility 
from them to us, and thus subvert the very 
foundations of moral government. But while 
this is true, it remains also true that parental 
fidelity shall have its reward and bear its fruits. 
While some may prove incorrigible, the larger 
part will yield to religious influence, and the 
harvest will be according to the sowing. Whoso 
doubts this does so in the face of Bible prom- 
ise and general experience. It is not claimed 
that piety is hereditary, but it is claimed that 
God hears and answers prayer; that religious 
example, persuasion, and argument are moral 
causes that Avill in all cases be followed by cer- 
tain results, modified only by free agency on 
the part of the subjects of such prayer, exam- 
ple, persuasion, and argument. 



If the idea of self-denying service be not im- 
pressed upon the young Christian at the start, 
it will be extremely difficult to do it at all. The 
mold taken at the white-heat of conversion 
hardens into permanence. Pastors will do 
well to give this a thought. 



112 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Carnal policy has achieved temporary tri- 
umphs for ecclesiasticisms at times, but they 
have cost dearly in the end. When the king- 
dom that is not of this world entangles itself 
with worldly alliances, and relies on worldly 
patronage, it abdicates its true position and 
renounces its claim upon the homage of men 
and the favor of God. Neither the strong arm 
of secular power nor the sorcery of genius has 
ever been able to avert the catastrophe that 
follows when the Church, the bride of Christ, 
consents to such compromises and complica- 
tions. Great establishments, thus buttressed, 
have fallen with a crash that has startled the 
world. Men of genius have again and again, 
by bending to popular fancies and flattering 
the popular vanity, achieved a wide popularity, 
but when death or a sudden turn of fortune 
has tested their work, its collapse has been 
quick and complete. Compromise is suicide. 
Cowardice is the path of danger. To give 
away a part of the truth to save the remainder 
is to give the tiger a taste of blood to satisfy 
its thirst. 

The amount of thought bestowed directly 
upon religion by the average Christian is as- 
tonishingly small. Try to be something more 
than an average Christian. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 113 

Christianity is evermore a new life. It is 
always reaching forth to the things that are 
before. Its genius is progressive. Its every 
goal is a fresh starting-point. Likeness to 
God is its aim and promised result. In kind 
this is at once attainable, but in degree eter- 
nity itself will not find -where to stop. As we 
climb the horizon broadens below, heights be- 
yond heights invite above. Our ideal enlarges 
and recedes before us as we advance. It is the 
new life not only when it begins, but forever. 
This is because the source of its supply is 
inexhaustible. Hid with Christ in God, the 
believer's life is replenished from a fountain 
that is always full as well as free. God is his 
portion; and he has the promise that he shall 
be filled with the fullness of God. That full- 
ness is measured only by the receptive capacity 
of his children. 

Religious experience is the best practical 
help in the study of the deepest spiritual 
truths. Rationalistic exegesis never touched 
the heart of the Bible. A spiritually-minded 
disciple of Jesus in the class-meeting will tell 
you things that no mere book-worm or Biblical 
critic could find out in a million of years. We 
must do the will of God if we would know it 
in the deepest sense. 



114 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Much of the narrowness of many men is 
owing to the fact that our country is overrun 
with innumerable "societies," organized for 
the promotion of special interests or particular 
classes, and sometimes on principles of avowed 
hostility to other classes. The Republic is 
honey-combed with them. Thus the elements 
are being prepared for some daring dema- 
gogue, in an evil hour, to fire the train which 
has been laid by our own selfishness and folly. 



Let no good citizen ever forget that God 
gives to every people civil institutions suited 
to their moral character. No amount of polit- 
ical sagacity can give genuine prosperity to an 
immoral people. True patriotism, therefore, 
is more concerned for the elevation of the 
masses than about tinkering at law-making. 



No man's real quality is seen until he has 
been tested by defeat. . A mean man hardens 
or withers under it. The noblest natures never 
stake what is necessary to their happiness upon 
the action of other people. 



The Christian mothers and fathers who al- 
low their children to go where they dare not 
go themselves must possess a brilliant genius 
for casuistry or uneasy consciences. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 115 

The habit of turning to the Commentary 
the first thing to get the meaning of a text is 
a bad one. It is better to do your own think- 
ing. When difficulties arise as to the true 
rendering of the text, or when a text is obscure, 
it is well enough to seek helps. Theology 
made easy is theology made weak and valueless. 



To make the Government stronger without 
strengthening the virtue of the people of these 
United States seems to be the tendency in 
some quarters. That is the road to despotism 
that other republics have traveled. Liberty 
will dwell only with virtue. 



If ministers of the gospel would be faithful 
in dealing with one another face to face, and 
utterly cease their criticisms of the absent, 
great would be the gain to themselves and to 
the cause of Christ. 



A low-spirited leader will take the heart out 
of the bravest army. When the pastor's cour- 
age wavers and his faith grows dim, let him 
go to his knees, telling the secret only to God. 



The sin of Ananias and Sapphira is in every 
heart that professes to give God what is con- 
sciously withheld. 



116 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The carnal, unrenewed nature cannot be ex- 
pected to relish religious enjoyments. It is of 
the earth, earthy. The tendency of natural 
appetite is in the direction of the forbidden 
and excessive indulgences which come specific- 
ally under the head of what is worldly and 
sensual. We cannot overlook this truth with- 
out a strange disregard of the plain teaching 
of Scripture and the most obvious facts of 
human life. Therefore it should be borne in 
mind by all candid persons, young or old, that 
in very many cases the difficulty does not lie 
in the fact that the Church is really an enemy 
to true enjoyment, but in the fact that object- 
ors have a false conception of what true enjoy- 
ment is. The demand should not be that the 
Church should change or lower her standard, 
but that they should elevate theirs. The Church 
cannot come down — they must go up. 



The men and women in the Church who 
pass weeks, months, and years without the use 
of the social means of grace must have pecul- 
iar spiritual resources within themselves, or 
they must be very lean and barren. 



Innocent men never shrink from investiga- 
tion. This simple aphorism will reveal the 
true character of many plausible rascals. 



I -- 



DO WE DETERIORATE? 



BO Christians usually deteriorate as they 
grow older? Many think so, and the 
thought gives them pain. And certainly 
there are few sadder thoughts than this. The 
fading of the colors of a beautiful painting 
excites a peculiar sense of regret in the lover 
of the beautiful. The change of the autumnal 
glory of the forest into the wintry nakedness 
and desolation makes those days the saddest 
of the year. But what is the fading of a pict- 
ure or the denudation of a forest to the visible 
or conscious deterioration of character? This 
is the saddest spectacle to be witnessed in this 
world, and the saddest experience of this life. 
But we are inclined to think that as a rule 
Christians do not deteriorate as they grow 
older. Of those who are truly born into the 
Christian life, and have its germ in their 
renewed natures, we indulge the hope that 
the larger part do really go on in the path 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect 

day. 

(117) 



118 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

A peach-tree in bloom is a more beautiful 
object than when loaded with ripe fruit. There 
is a freshness and novelty in the early religious 
experience of a Christian that make it inex- 
pressibly delightful, just as the first con- 
scious experiences in the world of sense are 
intensely joyous and hold the chief place in 
the memory through all after-years. There 
is more vividness of enjoyment, but not a truer 
life in the beginning. Self-knowledge comes, 
and with it the struggles that make the soul 
stronger. 

The sterner conflicts of the Christian soldier 
develop the glorious power to endure, which 
is no less a blessing than the capacity to enjoy, 
when considered in reference to the complete 
development and final destiny of the soul. The 
ideals of the true Christian constantly become 
more exalted, and the horizon of his hopes 
broadens forever. He judges himself, there- 
fore, by a higher standard. Falling, as so 
many believers do, far below this ideal, they 
feel a keen self-reproach, and discount unduly 
their whole present religious life, looking back 
with a misplaced regret to the period when 
their self-satisfaction was greater because their 
self-knowledge was smaller, and their aspira- 
tions being more vague, involved less risk of 
the anguish of conscious failure. And then 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 119 

the young Christian is often young in years. 
Youth is the season of beauty and hope and 
promise, and flattery throws its pleasing illu- 
sions around it. Care-worn, bent, and wrinkled 
age. loses this enchantment and escapes this 
snare. It sees things in a clearer light. It no 
longer hears the voice that whispers what hu- 
man nature so dearly loves to hear. Moral 
action stands naked in the cold, piercing light 
of reality. The glamour is gone. And so it 
may happen that the loss of the smiles and 
homage of men becomes the cause of a feeling 
that there has been a loss of somewhat that 
was a part of the true riches and sweetness 
and beauty of the soul. Few of us realize how 
much our own estimate of ourselves is affected 
by what others think of us. An atmosphere 
of non-appreciation blights some souls as a 
killing frost does the tender est flowers. There 
are many who think their souls are dead who 
only want the sunshine of favoring association 
to make them rebloom into a new spiritual 
life. Thank God for the hope that many, 
many blighted lives will rebloom in the fut- 
ure life beyond the grave! Thank God for 
the hope that many a self -distrustful but true- 
hearted follower of our Lord will then find 
that while the winter cold and ice and snows 
killed the flowers that brightened the spring- 



120 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

time with their beauty and shed their per- 
fumes on the air, they also protected the 
growing wheat and helped its growth for the 
garner of God! 






GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 121 

BLESSED are the peace-makers. And there 
is always work for them to do. Not by 
compromising with sin or winking at wrong- 
doing. That does not make peace, it only lays 
the foundation of future disturbance and con- 
flict. Peace-making is subserved by charitable 
judgment, by patience, by combined kindness 
and candor, by waiving self-defense where no 
injury has been sustained, and by giving an 
erring brother an opportunity to retrace his 
steps instead of pushing him over the preci- 
pice. The blessing promised to the peace- 
maker is often within our reach when we are 
too dull of sight to see it. 



When a preacher preaches beyond his as- 
similated acquisitions of thought, by pirating 
and parroting from stronger men, it is con- 
temptible in the eyes of the judicious; when 
he preaches beyond his actual religious expe- 
rience, by using the language while lacking the 
fervor of saints, it is matter of grief to the 
godly. Honest mediocrity is better than the 
stolen jewels of genius; the coldness of a sleep- 
ing sensibility is better than simulated fervors 
in the pulpit or out of it. 



To make a devil look like an angel of light, 
put the uniform of your own party on him. 



122 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

It is not the whole of the evil that parents 
are careless as to what is read by their chil- 
dren. They allow themselves a latitude that 
is indefensible. For their own reading they 
bring into their homes books that ought never 
to have been printed, and should never be read. 
Their principles and habits may be fixed so 
firmly that they can read these books without 
injury. Conceding this — though in many cases 
the facts would not justify such a concession — 
what may be safe for maturity and experience 
may not be safe for youth and inexperience. 
What to you may be only a matter of amuse- 
ment, or a subject of curious study, may be the 
influence that shall chill and kill the buddings 
of your child's moral life. Parental restric- 
tion at this point, if in conflict with parental 
example, will be justly regarded as tyrannical. 



Fragmentary moral reform is well enough 
as far as it goes, but Christianity goes deeper, 
and redeems the whole man. The world needs 
Christianity, and nothing less. As the divine- 
ly appointed agency for the salvation of men, 
it is adequate to its purpose. When Christians 
forget this, and direct their time, their enthu- 
siasm, and their money into other channels, they 
sacrifice the higher for the lower, the stronger 
for the weaker, the divine for the human. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 123 

It is not impossible that history may yet 
repeat itself in the exhibition of huge eccle- 
siastical organisms from which the breath of 
life has departed, for which nothing remains 
but to be buried, or to poison the air with 
their putrefaction. There is only one way by 
which this catastrophe can be escaped. The 
Church must go directly to the Source of its 
spiritual life, and seek the renewal of its 
strength. It must stop multiplying societies, 
and multiply its devotions. 



Plain preaching never does harm when the 
truth is spoken in love. But when carnal tem- 
p3r is mixed with the threatenings of God, the 
hearer is hardened and repelled. Hell is not 
to be uncapped before the sinner with a 
chuckle, but with awfulness and tears. Jesus 
weeping over fated Jerusalem is the attitude 
toward sinners of every minister who has the 
mind that was in him. 



The large boys and girls who receive instruc- 
tion from the best trained intellects in the day- 
schools will not listen to men and women who 
come to the Sunday-school lesson without 
preparation and without earnestness. If we 
would hold the older pupils, we must give them 
something to hold to. 



124 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

God has no use for the Church except as an 
instrument to be used for the spread of the 
gospel. It is made the depositary of the truth 
only that it may disseminate it. It is the re- 
cipient of grace only that it may be its dis- 
penser. The sword of the Spirit is placed in 
its hands only that it may be wielded for the 
conquest of the world. Propagandism is the 
law of Christianity, and the condition of its life 
and health. 

You have no more right to make it harder 
for your neighbor to save his soul than to 
destroy his bodily health by non-sanitation of 
adjoining premises. In ruining yourself you 
ruin others. This is a double crime — suicide 
and murder. 

Jesus never deputized another to perform 
an act of mercy which he could do himself 
while in the flesh. In this he was our exem- 
plar. Doing good by proxy is not the best 
method, except where it can be done in no 
other way. 

The scriptural rule is to give " as the Lord 
hath prospered you." This embraces soul- 
prosperity as well as that of the purse. If the 
pocket be full and the soul empty, the liberal 
hand will be wanting. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 125 

Repentance, faith, the new birth, and the 
new life, are the themes that come to the front 
whenever the Lord's ministers work for the 
salvation of souls by the direct methods em- 
ployed by him and his apostles. These doc- 
trines involve duties. Their reception compels 
to action. Their proclamation is a call to men 
to enter the Master's service, not to engage 
in doubtful disputations. Give us doctrinal 
preaching and teaching of this sort, but spare 
us the necessity of trying to obtain spiritual 
aliment from the old soup-bones that have 
been boiled over and over again and again 
until they are as juiceless as last year's oak- 
balls. 

Happy is the pastor who has not been sur- 
prised and disheartened by the shrinkage that 
has met him on entering upon a new charge. 
Happier he whose thoroughness, humility, and 
moderation of statement have given no occa- 
sion for his own work to be justly discounted 
by another. Happiest of all wall be he whose 
work will stand the test of the day that shall 
declare it in its true motive, quality, and 
measure. 

We can retain the grace of God only by 
sharing it; blessings multiply only by division. 



126 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

One class of egotists is composed of those 
whose self - consciousness expresses itself in 
perpetual verbal self-disparagement. These 
egotists are fussy in parading their unworthi- 
ness and short-comings, and they never allow 
you to forget how candid they are in dealing 
with themselves. Their humility is self-con- 
scious and self-proclaiming to such a degree 
as to make it painfully offensive to average 
human nature. This is perhaps its subtlest 
form, and its victims will read this article in 
blissful ignorance of the fact that they are sit- 
ting for the picture drawn. They think this 
ugly weed growing in the garden of their souls 
is a beautiful and fragrant flower. 



The courage which enables a man to stand 
between contending factions, displeasing both 
while waiting for time and reflection to do what 
hurry and passion can never effect, is as rare 
as it is valuable to Church or State. The men 
who possess this splendid quality of courage 
are often crucified by popular prejudice or 
misconception, but with the "sober second 
thought " comes their certain canonization. 



A bad man elected on a platform of good 
principles will either betray those principles 
or bring them into disgrace by his advocacy. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 127 

An unpruned orchard becomes a thicket of 
stunted trunks and unfruitful branches. The 
crowded trees cumber the ground. There is 
a brave show of leaves and waving boughs, but 
no fruit is brought to perfection. So is the 
Church where the great struggle is for num- 
bers, and where the pruning-knife of a godly- 
discipline- is not used. It may make a fair 
show in the census, but it will be surely over- 
run with worldliness and sin, the beauty of 
holiness will not adorn its members nor the 
fruits of holiness be brought forth unto eternal 
life. The unfruitful branch must be exscinded, 
and the fruitful branches must be pruned. 



One text "well studied is of more value than 
a whole book of the Bible hurriedly run over. 
But where one stops to think a score hurry 
from place to place like a gold-prospector who 
picks up a pebble anywhere and everywhere, 
but never sinks a shaft to reach the rich veins 
that lie deep in the bowels of the earth. 



The peril of those we love is the strongest 
call to holy living. The love that does not 
excite the Christian to better living for the 
sake of those he would save is not Christian 
love. It is on the plane of the world, not that 
of the Spirit. 



128 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

The Lord's quiet ones — blessings be upon 
their heads ! They sound no trumpets. They 
give no alms to be seen of men. They make 
no long prayers standing on the corners of the 
streets or in the synagogues. They simply let 
their holy light shine, with no flourish of Chi- 
nese lanterns or glare of sky-rockets. They 
simply bring forth the fruits of righteousness, 
being as trees planted by the rivers of water. 
They make melody in their hearts unto the 
Lord when the clamor of coarser voices deafens 
the ear of the public. Their lives flow on as 
quietly as a river whose channel is deep and 
whose banks are high, and their peace is sym- 
bolized by its current, which is ever strong, but 
never violent. Blessed be God that there are 
such sweet, quiet, beautiful souls among us. 
They sit in holy calm and in listening attitudes 
in the pews of our churches. They move noise- 
lessly about our homes, but shed the light of 
love upon all around. Their words are few, 
but their lives are poems divinely sweet. They" 
come to the social meetings of the Church, not 
with labored polemics or eloquent prayers, but 
bringing with them the silent influence that 
tunes the hearts of their brethren and sisters 
to receive the touches of the Holy Ghost. They 
have their appointed place, their blessed func- 
tion, and they shall have their reward. 



ALIENATIONS. 



WE do not speak of antipathies. They 
are inevitable and ineradicable. The 
sympathy of certain persons with oth- 
er persons is imperfect. Their natures are 
neither congenial nor complementary to each 
other. There is no point of contact between 
them in temperament, taste, and social affinity 
generally. They feel this to be so at first sight, 
and they feel it always. They may try, from 
one motive or another, to overcome this feel- 
ing, and may succeed in maintaining conven- 
tionally friendly relations, and even work to- 
gether for some common end without friction. 
They may be just in their dealings with each 
other, and may reciprocate the courtesies and 
good offices of life. But they never go beyond 
this. They touch one another, but never co- 
here. They are pitched on different keys, and 
cannot be tuned together. Discord, not har- 
mony, results from all attempts to evoke the 
music of social intimacy from such incongru- 
ous elements. We do not forget that Christian 
9 (129) 



130 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

love does expel from the heart in which it 
dwells all envy, malice, hatred, and uncharita- 
bleness, and inspires good-will and incites to 
ministries of service in behalf of every human 
being within its reach. This love is without 
partiality. A reflection from the eternal Sun 
of righteousness, its equal beams shine on all. 
It is patient toward all men; it prays for all 
men; it does good to all men as it has oppor- 
tunity. But intimate friendships and confi- 
dential intercourse are reserved for the smaller 
circle where heart answers to heart in the ex- 
change of a reciprocal sympathy spontaneous 
to each. They know each other quickly and 
always. Conversely, and almost as certainly, 
antipathetic natures recognize each other, and 
accept the situation, and adjust themselves 
to inevitable limitations in their intercourse. 
Despite an occasional and partial exception to 
this view, this seems to be the law of imper- 
fect sympathy between human beings. But it 
is not of these antipathies that we would speak, 
but of alienations. 

Alienations ! There is a world of sadness in 
the word. In many a heart it wails a dirge 
that mingles with the glad music of the new 
year. It brings up the images of faces whose 
smiles of love changed to frowns of aversion; 
awakens echoes of words whose music changed 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 131 

to discord; it recalls warm hand-clasps that 
changed to constrained greetings, and then to 
the silence of dead affection or friendship. 

The minister of God thinks of the time of 
his glowing love and joyous faith in the bright 
morning of ministerial life, and sighs to think 
how his pathway along the years has been 
strewed with alienations and the wrecks of 
broken ideals^ The early faith in men is par- 
tially lost, and with it a part of the blessed- 
ness of life. There is a darkness on his path, 
cast by the shadow of alienated friendships. 

These alienations creep into the Church. A 
little difference of opinion concerning the man- 
agement of some interest of Christ's kingdom, 
equally dear to all, divides the workers into 
parties or cliques; and it comes to pass that 
true-hearted men and women, who would die 
for their Lord, scarcely speak to one another. 
They drift insensibly into this current, and are 
startled with a great surprise when they awake 
to see the situation as it is. Many streams 
of Christian love and labor have been frozen 
into deadness by the icy breath of these petty 
alienations. 

The husband and wife think of the time 
when the gentle tones, the loving looks, the 
nameless little expressions of tenderness made 
in their homes music and sunshine, contrasting 



132 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

painfully with the asperity, the coldness, and 
seeming indifference, that have settled down 
upon their lives. The alienation has gone far 
enough to make them both unhappy, and must 
end in one of two ways: it must drift on in 
the fatal current to the utter extinction of the 
love that once made the world a blossoming 
paradise, or there must be a rekindling of the 
dying embers by a breath from another world 
than this. 

Parents and children are alienated, in whole 
or in part, by little irritations, or they fall 
apart, when separated in bodily presence, by 
simple neglect. There is the sting of wounded 
parental love on the one side, and the sullen- 
ness of jealousy or mistrust on the other. But, 
underneath these, there is yet the yearning for 
love, and the abiding sense of dissatisfaction. 

Brothers and sisters, too, fall apart in this 
way, drifting away in different directions on 
the currents of life. There is absence, silence, 
forgetfulness at times, but, with all these, a 
sense of regret that will not be quieted, and a 
longing to hear the voices of the old days, and 
to clasp again the hands that once they held 
in theirs. 

If Jesus were to come back to earth in per- 
son, the first thing he would do would be to 
heal these wounds in his body, the Church. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



133 



In every home he entered he would say, Peace 
to this house, that the shadows of alienation 
might flee before the presence of ineffable 
love. Brothers, sisters, he will come into 
Church and home to bring this peace with the 
new year to every willing heart. 




134 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

FRICTION is a factor in all dynamics. It 
is necessary to the existence and regula- 
tion of all movement on the earth. It is only 
when it is put on at the wrong place, or in ex- 
cessive measure, that it becomes a source of 
mischief. Then, instead of regulating, it un- 
duly retards or destroys. The mechanician 
who fails to calculate this force, or does it 
loosely, invites loss and disaster. So it is in 
the Church. Friction is inevitable, and, with- 
in proper limits, wholesome. It is good to 
have the cross-lights of differing minds, and 
the advantage of viewing matters from differ- 
ent stand-points. Collisions of opinion disclose 
the weakness of error and establish the right. 
Antipathetic temperaments balance one anoth- 
er; the cautious and phlegmatic moderate the 
more reckless and fiery; the daring and active 
prevent caution from sinking into cowardice, 
and prudence into cunning. 



The man who expects to enjoy a happy and 
fruitful religious life while he neglects prayer, 
reading the Scriptures, Christian fellowship, 
and Christian benevolence, is a fanatic. 



The man who is carrying a heavy burden 
may be* thankful for advice kindly offered, but 
what he wants is help. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 135 

When the soul has gone out of a word it is 
time to bury it. The live coal after it has 
become a dead cinder is of no use. The lan- 
guage of truth will cease to be uttered by the 
lips when its spirit has died out of the heart. 
This, however, does not always follow imme- 
diately. The empty words are repeated after 
they have ceased to have any real significance 
to the speaker, and the effect upon the hearer 
is scarcely less baneful than the undisguised 
proclamation of error. 



Much of the apparent sympathy with the 
sneering infidelity of the times has no deeper 
root than the persistent purpose of the multi- 
tude not to obey the gospel now. The pres- 
ence and pressure of Christian influence are so 
positive and powerful that obedience or hos- 
tility are the alternatives. 



The man who puts the worst construction on 
an unexplained fact or rumor is not the no- 
blest type of manhood. He interprets appear- 
ances by his own nature. 



The number of men who will scrupulously 
respect the sacredness of private conversation 
is smaller than many warm-hearted and im- 
pulsive people think. 



136 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There is a difference between the wholesale 
and retail liquor traffic — it is the difference 
between the explosion of a camphene-lamp and 
the conflagration that destroys a whole town 
or city. 

Open disparagement of a brother is often 
cruel and unjust — insinuated disparagement is 
always mean and cowardly. That which you 
are not ready to speak out in plain words, leave 
unsaid. 

The lecture the preacher gave to the ab- 
sentees did not do the " stand-bys " present 
much good. It was a waste of words and 
temper. 

The brother who was secretly glad for the 
rain that kept him from attending Church 
would not have been much benefited had he 
gone. , 

The man who has it in his power to please 
God reaches a height of attainment beyond all 
estimate. Think of this, and it will grow on 
you. 

If the preacher is too manifestly conscious 
of his rhetoric, his hearers are not likely to 
get any strong impression of his earnestness. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 137 

The Bible is a revelation from God to the 
common sense of mankind. They who study 
the Book itself, instead of perpetually read- 
ing about the Bible, get its truest and deepest 
meaning. 

The purest love is the inspiration of the 
truest courage. It prefers the welfare to the 
good-will of the one beloved. If it fall short 
of this, it is not pure love; it is only a coun- 
terfeit. 

A hopeful sign of growth in grace is the 
abatement of the hypercritical spirit. The 
man who hears nothing but discords is him- 
self out of tune. 

The person, young or old, who is capable of 
real self-denial for the family future has al- 
ready laid the foundations of a character of in- 
finite value. 

The identity of deep religious experience 
despite all the diversities of temperament or 
accidents of fortune is a strong evidence of its 
divinity. 

Universal suffrage and universal intelligence 
are correlatives, and if we forget it a univer- 
sal crash will be the probable result. 



133 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

There is a radical difference between the 
Christian and the carnal idea of pleasure. 
This difference is everywhere recognized and 
emphasized in the New Testament. It has 
caused perpetual conflict in the Church from 
the date of Paul's caustic letters to the Church 
at Corinth to this present year of our Lord. 
Spirituality and carnality have met around the 
altar of the Church, but have never mingled. 
What concord hath Christ with Belial ? or light 
with darkness? The dominance of the spirit- 
ual element in times of religious prosperity 
has, by the operation of the law of spiritual 
affinities, repelled from the Church the car- 
nally-minded and those who were lovers of 
pleasure more than lovers of God. And by 
the operation of the beneficent law that error 
and evil have a tendency ultimately to work 
their own cure, the very corruptions resulting 
from the admission of improper persons into 
the Church, and their retention, have led to 
those great upheavals and mighty revivals by 
which dead ecclesiasticisms have been uproot- 
ed and destroyed, and the Church of Christ 
again reclothed in the beauty of holiness and 
armed anew with the power of God. 



The time to push a thing is when it is do- 
ing well. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 139 

The Apostle Paul says he warned "every 
man." This means that his interest in the 
salvation of men was so intense that he yearned 
over every soul he met. It means, also, that 
in a world like this men in the Church and 
out of it need to be warned against dangers 
that surround them on all sides. 



Earnestness always produces activity, but it 
is not every man who is active in religious 
work who is religiously in earnest. There is 
an activity that is the result of temperament; 
there is an activity inspired by love of notori- 
ety; there is an activity religious in its letter 
but carnal in its spirit. 



Selfishness is never readier to show itself 
than when a Christian is suffering injustice or 
persecution. The old Adam feels that he has 
a license to go almost any lengths in a defen- 
sive warfare; and so, adopting the devilish law 
of retaliation, that which should be a blessing 
is turned into a curse. 



The manliness of a robust piety does not 
shrink from a fair blow, and can forgive and 
forget a foul one. -The man who broods over 
slights or disparagements has not attained the 
fullness of the stature of Christ. 



140 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Every soul born of the Spirit is a witness of 
its saving power. To bear this witness is the 
duty and privilege of all. " Where the Spirit 
of the Lord is, there is liberty." Under the 
afflatus of the Holy Ghost the soul rejoices in 
the conscious liberty wherewith it has been 
made free, and what it feels and knows with 
confidence it tells. 

The prevalent tendency to ignore or ridicule 
the emotional element in religion, while it may 
be the result of a reaction against fanaticism, 
is full of danger. The sensibilities are as 
much the creatures of God as the intellect, and 
their functions are no less important in the 
work of salvation. 

The criticism you made of your brother be- 
hind his back did not do him the least good. 
You did not expect it would. Why, then, did 
you make it? 

Your hopefulness as to the power of the 
gospel to save all men is measured by the 
strength of your consciousness that it has saved 
you. _____ 

The man who soured hopelessly under ill- 
treatment or hard fortune lacked some element 
of sweetness in his character at the start. 



FAMILY UNITY. 



\ V I HE unity of the family has been lost in 
<$\Ig) modern life. The husband has a world 
of his own separate from the wife. The 
children have a world of their own separate 
from the parents. The home, so called, is but 
a common boarding and lodging place. The 
various members of the household meet at 
meals, and nowhere else. They have scarcely 
any thing in common except the family name 
and in a limited sense the family purse. They 
have different sets of visitors and friends. 
Their lives flow in different channels, and the 
separations which time and the stern neces- 
sities of mature life make inevitable are an- 
ticipated by this folly that thus throws away 
the sweetest earthly joys that God places 
within the reach of mortals. The interplay 
of reciprocal influence and affection is inter- 
rupted, and God's gracious educative purpose 
in the institution of ike family relation is 
thwarted. 

The gravest aspect of this matter relates to 

(141) 



142 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

the religious welfare of the family. The lack 
of unity at this point is fraught with conse- 
quences equally painful and injurious. Here 
indeed the parents and the children live in 
separate worlds. The mother and father are 
in the Church, and their children are out. 
The parents kneel and partake of the emblems 
of the broken body and shed blood of their 
Lord while their children saunter out of the 
church with the non-professing throng, if in- 
deed they have not staid away altogether. The 
mother goes to the prayer-meeting, and the 
daughter to the theater or the dance. The 
father is an officer in the Church, and the son 
trains with scoffers, gamblers, and debauchees. 
If family prayer is. kept up, the older children 
shirk it, or show plainly that it is a bore and 
a burden to them. The one subject that is 
ignored as not being of general interest is re- 
ligion. A sermon from a new preacher may 
be commented upon, or some special event of 
the spectacular or popular kind may elicit 
passing remark; but conversation relating to 
Christian experience, bearing upon the prac- 
tical phases of the Christian life, and bringing 
out the inward thought aud purpose of each 
soul with reference t-v this most vital, solemn, 
and tender of all questions that could engage 
the thoughts and evoke the speech of persons 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 143 

who love one another, is unknown. There is 
coldness and constraint, if not repulsion, in 
the circle that ought to type the sweetness, 
the concord, and blessedness of heaven. There 
is a painful sense of misadjustment all round, 
and a shadow that rests upon all. This evil, 
once existing, has a self -perpetuating tendency, 
and nothing but a mighty sorrow will melt and 
remold these discordant elements into family 
unity. By the side of a death-bed or an open 
grave it has happened that the separated lines 
of family life have converged in one supreme 
moment when the eternal realities like a light- 
ning-flash struck each throbbing heart with 
resistless power. 

We would not exaggerate. The evil we 
deplore is no new thing. From the days of 
David and Absalom there have been division 
and grief and heart-break in families. The 
last hours of unnumbered fathers and mothers 
have been embittered by the reflection that 
their children had no sympathy with their 
highest joys and no share in their sweetest 
hopes. But it does seem to us that this evil 
is increasing. The centrifugal tendency is fos- 
tered by the conditions of modern life. The 
family is disintegratii,^, crumbling. The ac- 
tivity of the divorce coort is a symptom of this 
disease that, like a cancer, is gnawing at the 



144 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

vitals of society; but that subject would require 
separate and thoughtful treatment. 

He who will unfold the producing causes of 
this evil will entitle himself to the thanks and 
benedictions of all good people. Several sug- 
gest themselves to us: The business habits of 
men, hotel life, the influence of our education- 
al systems, the customs and usages of fashion- 
able life among women — all these contribute 
each in their measure to the unhappy result. 
But our solemn conviction is that the chief 
cause is to be found in the feeble, halting, 
half-hearted type of religion that prevails in 
the Churches. It is a religion without heart. 
It is a religion that is dead and dumb. It is 
a religion of mere decorum and forms. It is 
a religion without experience, and therefore 
giving no testimony and bearing no fruit. It 
kindles no light and wakes no song of joy in 
the home. In some homes there is just relig- 
ion enough of this sort to insure separation 
in feeling and living. They are not wholly 
given up to pleasure, and so do not bow to- 
gether at her shrine. They do not meet at the 
foot of the cross. What is the remedy? Be- 
gin early, and make religion the dominant 
influence in the home circle. From the very 
beginning put God into the family. Erect the 
home altar. Arrange the plan of home-life for 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



145 



both worlds. Plant the cross in the home, 
and let it be the radiant center of its life, the 
blessed bond of cohesion. It is too late for 
some who will read these lines with aching 
hearts. It is not too late for thousands of 
others. 
10 





,3 ^21$^ 



146 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

WHILE Christianity is the benignant moth- 
er of all the benevolent institutions and 
humane ministries which are the peculiar glory 
of modern civilization, there is a strange for- 
getfulness of the fact with many, and an un- 
grateful attempt on the part of others to array 
these very children of Christianity against 
their mother. The most noted and most sac- 
rilegious of all its opposers constantly attempts 
this trick of infidel legerdemain, holding up to 
the admiring gaze of noisy scoffers, as a sub- 
stitute for Christian ethics, the identical code 
(in its essential features) proclaimed by Moses 
and reenacted by Jesus Christ. The devil and 
his children thus seek to steal the weapons 
of the celestial armory to battle against God. 
And Christians themselves have done much to 
strengthen the hands of these assailants of their 
faith. They have allowed their enemies to put 
them in a false position with reference to this 
matter of doing good to men's bodies as well 
as their souls. Though the inspiration of all 
that is best in the spirit and methods of mod- 
ern philanthropy comes from Jesus Christ, the 
glory of it is not given to him. Though by 
far the larger part of all the vast expenditure 
of the various benevolent organizations of our 
day is contributed by Christians, it is dispensed 
through other channels; and so it happens that 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 147 

the Church, robbed of her rightful revenue and 
crippled in her function as humanity's friend 
and benefactor for both worlds, is put to shame 
by her own children. 



An enforced pause in the Christian labors of 
a true man or woman is often the preparation 
for future fruitfulness. The field that lies 
fallow this year will rejoice in an abundant 
harvest another season. This applies only to 
enforced pauses. A voluntary pause is renun- 
ciation of discipleship. 



Your labor is not in vain in the Lord, there- 
fore you need be careful but for one thing: let 
your labor be in the Lord and for the Lord. 
God will give the increase, in due time and in 
every case. There is no provision for doubt. 



No man or woman ever finds time for relig- 
ion. All who would gain this treasure must 
take time to seek it. It is never stumbled on 
by accident. It is never thrust into the idle 
hand of indolence or indifference. 



Simulated zeal, while it is very fatiguing to 
the actor and very damaging to his self-respect, 
deceives nobody. Coldness in the pulpit is 
fruitless; artificial fervors are disgusting. 



148 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Humility is the genuine diamond of religion. 
It has many imitations, but they deceive only the 
spiritually unlearned. The self-consciousness 
of a false humility cannot be hidden. True 
humility is the fairest flower that blooms in 
the garden of God. Mock humility is the sor- 
riest daub that ever caricatured perfect beauty. 



The prominent member of the Church, 
whether preacher or layman, who makes the 
impression that he does not attend the social 
meetings of the Church because he lacks a 
genuine relish for them makes the Lord's lit- 
tle ones to stumble. 



The novice in science is full of new theories. 
So it is in theology. Novices are always mend- 
ing the highway of holiness. Wiser men are 
content to help their fellows to walk in it. 



It nO more " pays " to half starve a preacher 
than it does to half starve a work-horse. The 
poorest farmers and the meanest Churches 
only are' guilty of this folly. 



The Sunday-school is called the nursery of 
the Church. So it ought to be. But if the 
nurse so trains the child as to alienate it from 
its mother, what then ? 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH*. 149 

To take a strong-willed, energetic man into 
the Church and give him nothing to do is a 
great folly. Such men must be active. If you 
do not give them something to do inside the 
Church, the devil will be likely to find them a 
job outside. 

Unexpected antagonisms or disparagements 
do not either embitter or discourage the man 
who has the mind of Christ. He regards such 
things as challenges to his Christian manhood 
and calls to greater watchfulness and prayer- 
fulness. 

A little "sour" is he?— the old preacher. 
He has had trials that would have broken you 
down years ago. Sweeten his life by a little 
kindness to him in his old age. He has a 
heart yet. Try it. 

The truest souls always draw closer to the 
causes or the objects they love when they are 
unpopular or imperiled. The meanest do just 
the contrary. There is no surer test of human 
spirits than this. 

The devil laughs at the folly of the mothers 
and fathers who close the doors of their houses 
against vicious persons and yet admit books 
and periodicals reeking with pollution. 



150 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Egotists when thrown into association with 
one another always find mutual repulsion. 
Each one is quick enough to detect the flaw in 
his neighbor, and often is swift to expose it. 
It might be expected that the sight of what is 
so unlovely in others would be as a mirror re- 
flecting their own deformity. But it is not so. 
Nothing but the regenerating and sanctifying 
power of the Holy Spirit will expel this ugly 
thing from the soul, and impart to it the mind 
which was in Christ Jesus. 



The religion of some people is like certain 
delicate articles of trade — it will not bear trans- 
portation. They seem to think that a tempo- 
rary change of residence is a dispensation 
absolving them from religious obligation and 
service. Think, unfaithful disciple, of this 
question: Will the religion that will not bear 
transportation a few hundred miles now bear 
the scrutiny of the judgment? 



When wicked men can give no better excuse 
for their wickedness than the inconsistencies 
of professed Christians, they practically con- 
fess judgment against themselves, and antici- 
pate the awful hour when, not daring to trifle 
thus with their Almighty Judge, they will bo 
speechless. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 151 

The brother who failed to put in his Church- 
letter and renew his membership in the Church 
when he changed his abode was a dead branch 
before he left; his connection with the Church 
was formal, not vital. The complaint that is 
heard from the frontier that so large a number 
of new-comers fail to identify themselves with 
the religious bodies to which they belonged in 
the older States is, in many cases, a disclosure 
not so much of sudden backsliding on the part 
of these delinquents as of the fact that they 
were only withered branches before they start- 
ed. True religion does not lose its voice and 
its power so easily. It is not of so frail a 
quality that it cannot stand the effects of a 
journey by land or a voyage by sea. The plants 
that wither so easily never had any root. 



The command to cleanse ourselves from all 
filthiness of the flesh and spirit means just 
what is said. To explain it away is impossi- 
ble; to refuse to obey it is to rob the Chris- 
tian life of its sweetness and glory. 



The romance of the mission-work excites 
and attracts a class of persons, but it is only 
the baptism of the Spirit of Christ that will 
insure steady service and unfailing liberality 
in this holiest of all enterprises. 



152 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Iii these days we often hear the remark made 
of this or that man who has fallen into crime, 
"What a sudden fall!" There is a mistake 
here. Men do not fall into crime suddenly. 
The downward course is gradual. It is an in- 
clined plane leading to an abyss, and the man 
who tampers with sin approaches the edge by 
degrees. There comes a moment when the 
verge is reached, and then he goes over. It 
seems sudden, for only the final, fatal plunge 
is seen by mortal eye. The beginnings of evil 
in all cases involve the possibility of- such a 
dreadful ending. Do not start down the in- 
clined plane. Resist the beginnings of evil. 



When the Church appeals to self-indulgence 
instead of self-denial, in raising money for 
the support of Christianity, it inverts the true 
method, and pursues a course which tends to 
the extirpation of genuine Christian liberality. 



The man who does one generous deed and 
shirks and higgles the remainder of the year 
is deceived if he thinks himself other than a 
stunted growth in the garden of the Lord. 



A consecrated Christian in the full sense of 
the word is one who does his duty and delights 
in doing it. 



HOLINESS FOR YOU NOW. 



^|^^ E ye holy now. Now is the clay of your 
|(^j full salvation. Let nothing hinder you 
^■^ from grasping now all your Lord offers 
to give you now. But some are disputing as 
to what holiness is. Let them dispute, but be 
ye holy. If you wait until they cease, you will 
die without the blessing. 

The feast is spread now. Do not stop to 
wrangle about the order of the different 
courses; only come, and the Master himself 
will attend to that. 

It is well enough to know chemistry, but 
the unlearned must eat whether they can ana- 
lyze the constituent elements of their food or 
not. So the soul that would be holy may have 
its aliment even if the polemics fail to settle 
their disputes. 

It is thfc will of God that you should be holy 
now. This lays upon you the weight of im- 
perative obligation. His will is the law of 
your life. You must obey or be condemned. 
No excuse will avail. No delay can be justi- 

(153) 



154 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

fied. Duty or disobedience is the plain issue. 
Listen to no sophistry, whether from man or 
devil, that would tempt you to doubt or to dally. 
The will of God is your sanctification. 

In saying it is God's will that you should 
be holy, the attainability of the blessing is 
affirmed. Nothing can thwart his work in the 
willing soul. He can work, and none can hin- 
der. Are you unworthy ? So much the more is 
his grace magnified in making you holy. Are 
your associations inimical to holiness? They 
should but drive you closer to the blood that 
makes you whole. Are you fighting a hard 
battle with adverse worldly conditions ? That 
only shows that you are planted in the soil in 
which it pleases God that the heavenly flower 
of holiness shall take root, grow, and bloom 
in its divinest beauty. He will not take you 
out of the world, but he will help you to put 
it under your feet. He will not exempt you 
from care, pain, and sorrow, but he will make 
all work together for your growth in the new 
life. Jesus is head over all things to the 
Church, and by him all things are made trib- 
utary to the growth, security, and full salva- 
tion of his followers. It is his voice that says, 
"Be ye holy, for I am holy; let your empty 
vessels be filled, for the fountain is full and 
free forever. All mine is yours. You are a 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 155 

joint-heir with me, and you may be filled with 
all the fullness of God." Holiness is union by 
faith with this Living Vine which imparts life, 
growth, fruit — life more abundant, growth un- 
ceasing, fruitf ulness ever increasing. 

Holiness is an experience within the reach 
of every believer, not a theory to be mastered 
only by a few skillful spiritual anatomists. It 
is a blessing for the Lord's little ones, many 
of whom, we may hope, grasp the prize while 
the gladiators are filling the polemical arena 
with the dust and noise of their strife. "As 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God." While partisans are saying, 
Lo here, or Lo there, the child of God has an 
infallible Guide. And he has an infallible 
Witness: "The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are the children of 
God." That satisfies, let the din of disputa- 
tion rage as it may. The believer know r s that 
he is a child of God in the new, sweet sense. 
And if a child, then all else follows in the 
orderly evolution of the true Christian life. 
Sonship and heirship are inseparable now and 
forever. 

Yes, now is the day of this complete salva- 
tion. " Now are we the sons of God," may be 
the grateful, joyful echo of every earnest soul 
to the apostle's triumphant paean, rejoicing in 



156 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



the believer's heirship of both worlds and of 
all things. Every one of us may share in the 
blessing and join in the rapturous strain. We 
may be holy now. Amen. 




GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 157 

BUB Lord Jesus Christ is the head of his 
own Church, and the leader of his own 
forces in the earth. There is no contingency 
possible for which he has not provided, there 
is no opposition for which he is unprepared. 
As in the past, so in the present, he is the 
head over all things to the Church. The living 
Church is the living miracle that cannot be 
gainsaid. Books are read by the few — the 
Church is read by all. The best books num- 
ber a few volumes — Christ's witnesses number 
millions of all ranks of society and of every 
grade of culture. _____ 

Liberality must not be confounded with in- 
difference. Liberality must not be confounded 
with diluted Christianity. Liberality must not 
be confounded with the spirit which gives a 
hospitable reception to every new-fangled no- 
tion that is thrust upon the religious world. 
We have no right to be more liberal than the 
Bible. 

The man who is glib in telling a commercial 
lie justifies himself because his business com- 
petitors do it. This at least is the only excuse 
he makes to his own conscience. But it satis- 
fies no man who is not a fool. What will it be 
worth at the bar of God? 



158 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Sanctification is not an exceptional state of 
religious experience — a blessing for the few, 
not to be enjoyed by the many. It is offered 
to, and enjoined upon, all believers. It is not 
something peculiar in the Christian life, but 
the orderly development of grace in every re- 
generate soul. It is not a mystery revealed 
only to an elect few, but hidden from the little 
ones of Christ's flock. Its attainment is a 
duty, and all duties are made plain to the hum- 
ble and obedient in spirit. It is not a goal, 
but a stage gained in an endless upward and 
onward career. 

What poor, weak creatures we are! You 
may enjoy a friend for years, but let his inter- 
est clash with yours, and lo, he is your enemy! 
"Rivals never love each other," is an adage of 
the world. Let the world have it and act on 
it if it will. The followers of Jesus should be 
above it. A mark of the true disciples is that 
in honor they prefer one another. Who bears 
that mark now? 

When a Christian man becomes so strong in 
his religious life that he can afford to dispense 
with the means of grace offered for his use in 
the social meetings of the Church, he is cer- 
tainly stronger than the New Testament stand- 
ard of strength. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 159 

A certain class of Christians spend their time 
thinking of their feelings instead of their con- 
duct. They become morbid from excessive 
introspection, and suffer a sort of paralysis of 
moral energy. Let all such go to work for 
Christ as they find opportunity, and they will 
find the stagnant waters of their souls turn 
sweet as they go singing on in the way of obe- 
dience. 

Said a good lady to the preacher, as he came 
out of the pulpit, "You preached a good ser- 
mon to-night." " What is your standard of a 
good sermon?" " When a sermon makes you 
feel that you ought to do better, and that you 
can do better, I call it a good sermon." It 
would be hard to find a better definition than 
this. 

The religion, by whatever name it may be 
called, and whatever pretensions it may make, 
that does not concern itself for the physical 
welfare of suffering humanity will not be be- 
lieved when it expresses great concern for the 
salvation of souls. 

The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the surest 
preventive of doctrinal difference and difficulty 
in the Church. Under that divine influence 
Christians emphasize the right things. 



160 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Now and then special services are held in 
half-alive congregations for the purpose of 
converting sinners. Deep and thorough con- 
versions can scarcely be looked for in such an 
atmosphere of coldness and formality. If any 
are born into the new life, it is like casting 
forth tender lambs upon a snowy north hill- 
side in midwinter. They are likely to freeze 
to death, or be permanently stunted in their 
growth. A healthy spiritual offspring cannot 
be expected from such a sickly motherhood. 
Either the new "converts " fall away or they 
remain to swell the ranks of those who have 
the form bat not the power of godliness. 



The study of the Scriptures is enjoined upon 
all believers. The hurried reading of a chap- 
ter or two daily does not meet this require- 
ment. That is not study. With many it is 
only task work. Study means thinking. Bet- 
ter read one verse and then meditate on it 
earnestly than read whole books, as many do, 
hurriedly and carelessly. The Bible is a mine 
of precious truth, but it is not surface digging 
that will reach the ore. 



In the Church unconverted, and yet at ease ! 
Beware! The man who had not on the wed- 
ding-garment presumed too far. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 161 

The old cry is repeated that if Christians 
would patronize the theater it could be re- 
formed. Nonsense. Many professed Chris- 
tians do go to the theater, and they and the 
theater are both getting worse instead of better. 



You must not become discouraged because 
you do not at once realize the fulfillment of 
your ideal of the Christian life. Grow in 
grace, is the word. The tendency is ever to- 
ward perfection as long as you keep trying. 



It is a good time for a man to be silent when 
personal disappointment is mingled with the 
defeat of his view^s on questions of public in- 
terest. He is likely to be misunderstood — and 
to misunderstand himself. 



The heroism of the missionaries in the field 
must be equaled by the self-denial of the 
Church at home before the heathen shall be 
given as an inheritance to our Christ. 



When a thought or suggestion from the word 
of God feeds your soul, hold it long enough to 
make it yours forever. 



No critic in the Church is entitled to respect- 
ful hearing unless he is also a worker. 
11 



162 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Be sure of this, that the man or the woman 
who is ready to give his Christian life a vaca- 
tion while he is from home never was sincere 
in the matter of serving God. They who have 
religion take it along with them wherever they 

go- 

The intimate connection between drunken- 
ness and obscenity ought to make a man of 
gentlemanly instincts resolve never to risk 
getting drunk. This is for the man who will 
read it. 

There is no time for family-prayer in the 
family where the spirit of prayer is lacking. 
There is plenty of time for it where the in- 
clination is felt. 

The brother who did not miss a prayer-meet- 
ing during the year was more helpful to his pas- 
tor than the one who made a good talk once a 
quarter. 

The worst sort of a "ritualist" is the man 
who repeats interminably his own dull and stu- 
pid drivel. 

Do not try to push every zealous young lay- 
man into the pulpit. Let God call men to 
preach. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 163 

When a Christian man thinks he can work 
better outside the Church than in it, he may 
be sincere, but he is in clanger of taking a 
course that would, if adopted by all believers, 
destroy the visible Church altogether. You do 
not desire that. __ 

The man who never sings, nor prays, nor 
speaks for Christ in the social meetings of the 
Church, may be a good listener and a good 
man, but things will be awkward to him at 
first when he gets to heaven. There he will 
open his lips. 

Do not trouble yourself concerning your 
emotions, the subjective phenomena attending 
the exercise of faith in Christ. Be careful 
only of your purpose of heart — the frames and 
feelings will be regulated by their own blessed 
law. 

Do you not at times feel a misgiving that 
your loss of spiritual serenity and power may 
be owing to some indulgence concerning which 
conscience has raised an interrogation-point in 
your mind? 

In all organized bodies majorities must rule. 
A factious minority is as criminal as a tyran- 
nical majority. 



< 



IM GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

It is only twenty-five thousand miles round 
this earth. Soon there will be no "foreign" 
missions except in the sense that the mind 
that was in Christ Jesus is foreign to many 
who are called by his name. 



You went once upon doubtful ground. You 
met there an unconverted friend whose look of 
surprise took away half the pleasure you ex- 
pected to find. You have put that friend be- 
yond your reach for good. 



Of all the benefits you have received from 
your fellow-creatures, the most precious have 
come by timely words spoken by holy men and 
women. Think of this, silent disciple of Jesus. 



Can an unconverted man or woman do the 
specific work aimed at in our Sunday-schools? 
This is the same as to ask whether a blind man 
can be a competent guide in a journey. 



The meanest expression of a mean nature is 
to ascribe a bad motive for a good action. It 
is akin to the sin against the Holy Ghost, and 
is born of the same father, the devil. 



The " liberality " that is not pained at error 
is not Christ's, but Satan's. 



SORROW THE TEACHER. 



IT is a dark day when the question is wrung 
from the soul: Does God know — does he 
care? The lightning - bolt leaps from a 
clear sky, and the joy of life is blasted. Death 
comes suddenly, and the light of the eyes is 
quenched. Calamity in other forms descends 
like sudden night, and all is dark. We try to 
rally to meet the shock. We take up the Bi- 
ble, and turn to its blessed pages. The letter 
is there, but the spirit seems to have fled. 
Friends try to comfort us, but their words 
have no meaning for us. From the common- 
places of philosophy the agonized soul turns 
away with loathing. 

The soul is in its crisis now. Its natural 
props and comforts have fallen away. The 
dark waves and billows have gone over it. 
The intellect is confounded. Still trying to 
cling to God, out of these depths the sufferer 
cries unto him; bat he seems not to hear. He 
does not reveal himself at once to the strug- 
gling soul that listens to catch his assuring 

(165) 



166 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

voice, and feels in the dark to clasp his sup- 
porting hand. A great and sadden calamity 
of heavy sorrow produces a sort of moral pa- 
ralysis. The stricken soul may still struggle, 
but is slow in rallying its forces. 

David had this experience. When over- 
whelmed by disaster, in the agony of his soul 
he demands: "How long wilt thou forget me, 
O God?" When the Church lies low at the 
feet of her taunting foes, scorned and trampled 
upon, the Holy One of Israel seeming to have 
abandoned his own cause in the earth, he cries 
out: "O God, why hast thou cast us off forev- 
er? " And when, in the midst of deep trouble, 
the sense of loneliness and desolation falls 
upon him with crushing weight, the wail is 
extorted: "Hide not thy face from me .in the 
day when I am in trouble." 

The almost despairing cry of the psalmist 
has found an echo in unnumbered souls whose 
faith and hope have trembled in the bitter 
blast of adversity. It is no strange thing that 
happens to the servant of God when these 
things come upon him. He is walking in the 
path trodden by God's elect in all ages. " There 
is no sorrow like my sorrow," each one may say 
in a true sense, every heart knowing its own 
bitterness. There is in the griefs of every life 
some element that gives its peculiar sting; but 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 167 

the scourge, the crown of thorns, and the cross 
await each and all who will be gathered with 
the blood-washed throng who shall go up to 
their rest and reward out of great tribulation. 

Such experiences are tests and teachers. 
They determine whether the spiritual house be 
built upon the sand oz upon the rock. They 
reveal the secrets of men's hearts. The flood 
and the tempest fulfill their office. The true 
disciple stands the storm. He may bend be- 
fore the fury of the gale, but he does not break. 
He is chastened, not crushed. In such crises 
deep-rooted faith rallies and asserts its power, 
and henceforth the child of sorrow is more 
than ever the child of God. He lives on a 
higher plane. Having wrestled and prevailed, 
he is stronger forever. 

The secret of the Lord is learned in this 
school of sorrow. The disciple, sorrowing, 
tempest-tossed, learns what it is to walk con- 
sciously in the light of the Lord and the com- 
fort of the Holy Ghost. That comfort has 
come to him when all other comforts failed. 
That light shines when all other lights have 
gone out. The Comforter comes direct to his 
heart, as Jesus promised. It was a flash of 
blessed spiritual insight that led a Christian 
woman to say, when she was reeling under a 
great sorrow: " I do not want time, or the sug- 



168 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

gestions or the sympathy of even my dearest 
friends, to bring me comfort — I want the Holy 
Spirit to be my comforter." Ah, yes! he only 
could comfort truly a grief like hers. This is 
the secret — God is the only helper in such 
times of need. His voice alone can still the 
tempest, his hand alone lift the sinking soul 
above the roaring waves. Learned in this 
school, the lesson of trust is mastered for time 
and for eternity. 

Blessed is he that endures; he shall come 
forth as gold from the furnace of sorrow. His 
baptism of fire shall bring him into closer 
union with the Lord. It shall fit him for bet- 
ter service in a world of sin and pain. It shall 
prepare him for a more abundant entrance 
into the everlasting kingdom, and for eternal 
and joyful companionship with the white-robed 
millions upon the mount of God. 



ST— °*!>y8*- 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 169 

M STAGNANT pond does not more certain- 
ly generate and diffuse malaria than does 
a vicious quarter in a city or town generate 
and diffuse moral corruption. The sight of it 
is suggestive of prurient thought in the young. 
The very names of such places become locally 
symbolic of vice, and tend to familiarize the 
minds of even little children with ideas that 
rob them of the bloom of innocence, and lower 
forever their conception of the purity, sweet- 
ness, and dignity of human life. If you could 
know all that is in the thought and speech of 
your own children, who live outside of these 
dark districts, but within sight and hearing of 
them, you would very quickly abandon the fal- 
lacy that one part of a social organism can be 
sound and strong, while another is rotten with 
disease. In the history of cities a new street 
is from time to time annexed to the devil's 
territory. In the history of families from time 
to time a son or daughter is sucked into the 
fatal stream to swell the census of ruined 
souls and broken hearts. It was a mistake 
for you to think you and yours were safe. 
Safe ! Nobody is safe when there is death in 
the air. Nobody can be safe in the indulgence 
of the cowardice or selfishness that allows men 
and women within sight of them to perish in 
sin without lifting a voice to warn or a hand 



170 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

to help. Nothing is safe when such elements 
are at work. It was no flash of idle rhetoric 
in the great historian who said that the ene- 
mies that would destroy our modern civiliza- 
tion will be bred in its midst. 



Holiness is not a riddle. Dismiss forever 
the notion that when you would consider it you 
enter the realm of mystery and perplexity. It 
is the region of sunshine, not of fog and night. 
As it concerns the highest interest of the soul, 
so it shines in the clearest light. Here, where 
most is at stake, is greatest certainty. 



As when the lower layer in a box of apples 
is rotten the whole box will be affected, so 
when the masses of society are ignorant and 
degraded, corruption will spread through its 
higher ranks. Selfishness is always self-pun- 
ishing in the long run. 



The country in which the tillers of the land 
have no permanent interest in its improvement 
will go to ruin. This will be true as long as 
there is human nature in human beings. 



If, in following Jesus, you shrink back when 
you come to Gethsemane, thenceforth there is 
a gulf between your heart and his. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 171 

Your conversion away back in the dim dis- 
tance, the vows assumed at the altar of the 
Church in joining it, the religious formula 
deposited in the memory when for a little sea- 
son your mind was actively employed in the 
study of the things of God — are these what you 
call the new life of Christianity? Do you ex- 
pect to satisfy your spiritual hunger and thirst 
by reverting to these things? As well try to 
warm your freezing body by the cold ashes of 
fires that burned out last year. 



Many a man banishes the brandy-bottle from 
his side-board, for the sake of his growing boys, 
whose library is full of bad books, and whose 
daily paper is the one farthest removed from 
decency and moral healthfulness of tone. If 
this be not folly, what is? 



Under the theocracy a tenth was required by 
the law. Under the gospel we are required to 
give weekly as God prospers us; that is, as 
prospers not only the purse, but the soul — not 
only ability, but willingness. 



If every good impulse of your heart found 
expression in speech or act, your life would be 
doubled in its fruitfulness. By indolence or 
indecision half its possibility is lost. 



The way a professed Christian behaves him- 
self from home tests him and reveals him in 
his true character. He is then out of the ruts 
of conventionality and habit. He acts himself. 
If he is prayerless in spirit, he shows it by 
neglecting the forms that kept his conscience 
quiet at home. If his heart secretly longs for 
unhallowed pleasures, he goes after them. If 
he prefers the society of the gay and worldly 
to that of the quiet and spiritually-minded, he 
shows it in the choice of his associates. 



One preacher makes himself popular, fills 
his church, and gets many a puff from the 
newspapers. Another, doing God's work in 
God's way, makes less noise, but leads men to 
love the Lord Jesus Christ. The one builds 
up himself; the other, his Master's cause. The 
one projects himself upon the community; the 
other, his Master. The work of the one will 
perish ; that of the other will stand. 



Woman's work in the Church began when 
the Church began. It will be going on when 
the music of its song of final triumph shall be 
ringing over all the earth. 



When a newspaper prints the literature of 
the slums, let the slums support it. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 173 

Said a gray-haired man in the class-meeting: 
" I am surrounded with mysteries and live in 
the midst of infidels. But when a man has 
been to a good country, and seen it for him- 
self, and breathed its air, and tasted its fruits, 
no one need tell him it is not a good country. 
So it is with my religion. I have tried it for 
myself. I have been there. All the infidels 
in the world cannot move me." And he sat 
down amid a volley of Aniens. 



So long as a man feels that he is not where 
he ought to be, his movement will be feeble 
and painful. And herein is a snare to many 
gifted and sensitive souls. They have such 
strong preferences that they thwart the very 
processes by which an invisible hand would 
lead them to the desired consummation. De- 
lay means not defeat, but preparation. 



The fact that his calling allows him to spend 
all his time in thinking of things and working 
for results of eternal value is a compensation 
to the true minister of the gospel for all that 
he gives up in assuming his high vocation. 



The true soul- winner has a wonderful intu- 
ition as to the needs of his people. Love is 
quick-sighted and deep-sighted. 



174 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The best physical remedy for the blues and 
ill-temper is to go a-fishing. There is a mag- 
netism in the angler's rod that is felt from the 
finger-tips to the sensorium. The nerves are 
quieted at the same time they are invigorated. 
The fevered blood catches the refreshing cool- 
ness of pellucid depths. The music of spark- 
ling waters dancing down pebbly channels en- 
ters the soul, charming away evil spirits as did 
the harp of the young shepherd of Judea the 
evil spirit from the soul of the sad and gloomy 
son of Kish. 

A young member of the Church said, " I do 
not read the Bible now, for I have already 
read it all through." As well say astron- 
omy can teach him nothing because he has 
glanced at the shining heavens. Depths be- 
yond depths of knowledge reward the study 
of the Book of God and the book of nature 
alike. 

The complaint was made that the preacher 
had no magnetism. A grievous disability this, 
if the complaint was just. Love is always mag- 
netic, and a preacher without love has not the 
mind of Christ. 

Postponement is half abandonment of your 
best intentions. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 175 

There is as much demand for real moral 
heroism in the pastorate of a modern city 
Church as in the darkest places of heathenism ; 
that is, if the pastor will stand up squarely 
for truth and righteousness. The frowns of 
money-loving and pleasure-loving friends are 
as hard to meet as the scowls of idolatrous 
heathen. 

The true-hearted follower of Jesus kept 
hoping all through life that God would open 
to him a sphere of service, and at last awoke 
to see that he had all the time been doing the 
very work his Master wanted done; and his 
heart was filled with a great surprise and a 
great joy. 

The modern humanitarianism which leaves 
God and immortality out of its creed, and the 
dogmatic orthodoxy which cares nothing for 
the bodily welfare of mankind, are about 
equally far removed from the religion of the 
New Testament. 

When the current of conversation starts the 
wrong way, it is hard to turn it. Start with 
religion. 

To expect perfect peace with imperfect con- 
secration is to expect an impossible thing. 



176 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There was a pause in the prayer-raeeting— 
not an awkward, painful pause, but a thought- 
ful pause. The leader had given those present 
something to think about, and they were think- 
ing. That was better than speaking merely to 
"fill up the time." Silence is better than idle 
words. After thinking, men speak to purpose. 
A little touch of Quakerism, in the best sense 
of the word, is good in its place. 



How childish is this talk of punishment for 
wrong-doing according to, or by, a law of nat- 
ure! As well say, when you punish a child, 
that it is the rod that punishes. There is a 
Law-maker behind the law, as there is an arm 
that wields the rod. 



Your children adopt your politics, but they 
do not adopt your religion. Why? Because 
you are more earnest in your devotion to your 
party than to your Church. 



If ministers of Christ would never belittle 
one another they would have better standing 
with their fellow-men and with their Master. 



Hold fast the form of sound words. The 
terminology of the Holy Ghost is better than 
that of the modern lecture-room. 



THE JEWEL-HEADED TOAD. 



& I © 



10 do any thing for yourself these times 
is to get in somebody else's way. There 
is no place for you that somebody else 
would not like to have. Whether you follow 
a profession or work at a trade; whether you 
sell dry goods or dig the earth; whether you 
run for office or teach school; whether you 
print newspapers or pasture cattle: whatever 
you do, you are in somebody else's way. What- 
ever you get, it is what somebody else wanted. 
If, disgusted and weary, you should seek retire- 
ment in a hermit's cave, most likely you would 
find that preempted by some cynic who got 
ahead of you ! All generous souls chafe under 
this unceasing friction and conflict. They long 
for peace. In the intervals of their heated 
conflicts with their fellows, they turn with dis- 
gust from a life in which to win even the small- 
est prize it must be selfishly snatched from the 
hand of another. This feeling of disgust is 
intensified by the reflection that this seems to 
be the normal condition of human society — 
12 (177) 



178 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

that human life is to be forever like a scram- 
ble of dogs for bones, of swine for swill. 

But hold! look deeper. It is best as it is. 
The benignant Power that rules this world, 
and all worlds, has not erred in placing us 
where perpetual warfare seems to be necessa- 
ry to existence. 

Progress is the law of our being — progress 
through antagonism. If every man were fitted 
without exertion into a niche prepared for 
him — if he could have what he wants without 
competition — mental stagnation and death 
would ensue. Activity is the law of health. In 
proportion as men are exempted from the neces- 
sity for exertion of their powers are those 
powers enfeebled. Disuse finally leads to ex- 
tirpation. The intellectual progress of the 
race is the result of an unending struggle be- 
tween man and his fellow, and between man 
and nature. However it may be in the world 
beyond, in this stage of our being here on earth 
we must accept the truth that this is the con- 
dition of intellectual progress. 

This struggle is also the condition of moral 
progress. The collision of conflicting inter- 
ests, the rivalries of ambition and avarice, fur- 
nish opportunity for the exercise of the noblest 
impulses of human nature. The refining and 
exalting discipline of man's soul is found in 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 179 

resisting and overcoming, rather than in ex- 
emption from, temptation. In this arena, in 
which the prizes of this life are battled for, 
moral knighthood is won. In our stores there 
are merchants who are Bayards in magnanim- 
ity toward rivals. Among capitalists there are 
men who use money as the beneficent instru- 
ment of public enterprise and private benefac- 
tion. In political life there are white-souled 
men who have chosen defeat rather than de- 
fame an opponent. In the humbler walks of 
life there are thousands w T ho, hand as they 
must strive to wring from unfriendly condi- 
tions their daily bread, never stretch forth a 
dishonest hand to take what belongs to others. 
So this conflict, these temptations, furnish 
the intellectual and moral discipline necessary 
to the progress of our race. The very condi- 
tions which, looked at superficially, excite dis- 
gust and a longing to flee away to find rest, 
give us the best schooling of our lives. This 
ugly toad wears a jewel in its head. 






HABLY marriages give the greatest promise 
of happiness. This is the voice of nature, 
which is the same as saying it is the voice of 
God. There are good reasons why some may 
decline altogether to marry; there are reasons 
why others may defer marriage; but it is an 
inspired word that says, " Bejoice with the wife 
of thy youth." But the extravagant habits of 
many of our young people of both sexes are 
an insuperable bar to matrimony. They waste 
in dress and amusement what might build them 
homes, and so, drifting upon the tide of life 
homeless and aimless, our young men fall into 
vice and our young women into — what we find 
them to be. Love, health, and industry, are 
capital enough for any young couple to begin 
with. With the blessing of God, these will win. 
So let the young people marry — let them mar- 
ry for love and for life. 



The blessing promised to the peace-maker 
belongs .not only to the man who reconciles the 
discords of others, but also to the man who, 
for the sake of peace, forbears either to parade 
or avenge his own wrongs. 



The man who does any thing in business 
does not wait for openings — he makes them. 
It is just the same in religion. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 181 

The constitution that resists malaria during 
June, July, and August sometimes succumbs 
in September. Evil associations that do not 
blight the budding Christian life at once may 
prove fatal in the end. Do not take the risk. 



A Christian man must sometimes execute 
orders that he feels sure were not the wisest 
when first given, or else there will be confu- 
sion all along the lines of the militant Church. 
The Church has also its Balaklavas. 



> You must give your love and service to par- 
ticular individuals within your reach if you 
would keep your heart warm with love to the 
world at large. The man you see is the link 
that connects you with all men. 



The preacher who yields in any degree to 
the modern demand for sensationalism in the 
pulpit takes a larger contract than he thinks. 
Morbid mental and spiritual appetites, like 
physical ones, are insatiable. 



Coax or flatter a man into doing his duty, 
and you will have to go through the same 
process every time any thing is to be done. 
Reach him through his conscience, and the 
work is done for life. 



182 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The promise that in due time you shall reap 
if you faint not goes beyond the depth of the 
unthinking. The sowing of many years may 
be partially or wholly lost because in the crit- 
ical reaping-time you gave up your efforts. 
Consider here. 

While the Church, settled into a frozen su- 
per-gentility, shrinks from all excitement, and 
the world is wild with its own excitements, who 
can expect any thing but the backward move- 
ment of the former before the aggressive rush 

of the latter? 

f 

While theorizers are repeating the old cries 
about reaching the masses, earnest men aie 
following the method of Jesus. He reached 
them simply by going to them in person. There 
is no other way. 

Do not be discouraged because the men you 
work with prove weaker or meaner than you 
expected. Their weakness and meanness is a 
call to you for help, not for scorn or denun- 
ciation. 

The merchant who tells " white lies " in trade 
because his neighbors do the same will have 
to change his practice before he can become 
the possessor of the pearl of great price. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 183 

We knew a sweet and saintly Christian lady 
of advanced age who read the fourteenth chap- 
ter*)! John's Gospel every day. She knew it 
all by heart, but still she found a blessing in 
the reading of it. A child knows its mother 
loves it, but loves to be told of it again and 
again. The words of love are always sweet to 
the loving heart. 

The cure for excessive sensitiveness is con- 
sciousness of the favor of God. The man who 
knows that he pleases God cannot be disturbed 
because he cannot please all of his fallible fel- 
low-men. _____ 

The cold-blooded meanness that cheats the 
ignorant is worse than the brutality that bruises 
the weak. The bully is fined or jailed; the 
cheat builds a brick house and gets into " so- 
ciety." • 

The true function of the Church is to save 
the people, not to amuse them. When this is 
forgotten, it sinks below the worldly level, su- 
peradding false pretension to pernicious prac- 
tice. 

Your plan of life is to have an easy time. 
God's plan is to give you a character for a 
■ blessed eternity. Change your plan. 



184 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The elect are those who have been born of 
God, and know it; who are led by his Spirit, 
and know it; who possess an abiding peace, 
and know it; who have begotten within them 
by the resurrection-power of the risen Christ 
the living hope, and exnlt in it. Consciousness 
defies criticism. The man who knows is in no 
danger from the man who doubts or denies. 



A thousand men will confess to themselves 
that they have been hasty and unjust toward 
others where one will make open acknowledg- 
ment and reparation. This shows that there 
are a thousand men who have consciences 
where there is one who has attained the high- 
est nobility of character. 



The preacher who waits for other excite- 
ments to subside before he makes special ef- 
fort for the conversion of sinners will wait 
until newspapers cease to be printed and elec- 
tions cease to be held. The gospel is always 
the previous question. 



The courage that pushes forward under 
strong conviction of duty when timid souls 
hesitate or draw back is noble; the courage 
that refuses to push forward with the crowd 
when it is going wrong is nobler and rarer. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 185 

The glow of enthusiasm you put into the 
work that seemed to be needed carried you 
through the task, and now you find a reaction 
and some misgivings. That is all right— nat- 
ure and grace qualifying you for self-criticism 
and saving you from silly self -elation. 



The best revivals have sometimes been those 
that were not planned beforehand. Faithful 
preaching and earnest praying made a channel, 
and the river of God poured into the Church. 



The kingdom of heaven must be within us. 
God's aim is not merely to bring us to glory 
by and by, but to put heaven into our souls 
now — heaven in its essential element of love. 



The factious subaltern never made a true 
leader. Fidelity to fellow-workers is indispen- 
sable. The lack of it makes a factionist out 
of position and a tyrant in it. 



If you wait until all your fellow-workers are 
congenial to you before you go to work for 
Christ, you will not begin at all in this world. 

" They give and grow," is the way a brother 
puts the matter. The words are but a para- 
phrase of the Master's own language. 



186 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Holiness is not a blessing for the future, but 
for the present. This is a crucial statement. 
By it shall the thoughts of many hearts be 
revealed. Holiness now! Does your heart 
shrink back with a sort of reluctance and hes- 
itancy? Then you do not want it. You are 
not ready to sell all, that you may buy this 
goodly pearl — you keep back part of the price. 
You are yet carnal. Yours is a divided heart, 
and yours must be a joyless experience and a 
barren life. The blessing promised to such 
as hunger and thirst after righteousness — the 
righteousness of pardon and purity, of justifi- 
cation and sanctification — is not for you. You 
do not want it except in the vague, foolish, 
unworthy sense that when you can no longer 
cling to the world the security and the joys of 
religion may be within your reach. The lan- 
guage of your heart is, " Give me the world 
now, and let me have holiness when the world 
fails me." Is this your inward thought? If 
so, it bars your way to the blessing as effectu- 
ally as did Esau's trade for. the mess of pot- 
tage cut him off from his glorious birthright. 
You, too, are an Esau, selling your divine birth- 
right to holiness for the carnality you will not 
part with now. Beware, brother ! there is death 
in that pot. The neglect of so great salvation 
can onlv end in the loss of it. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 187 

A good man sometimes gets a foretaste of 
the reward that awaits fidelity in the life to 
come in the recognition given of his worth by 
his co-laborers in the field of Christian service. 
When this comes unsought, it brings a pleas- 
ure without alloy. It is worthless if it comes 
in any other way. 

The brother who inclined his head in silent 
prayer when he took his seat in church was 
stared at as an innovator. The other brother 
who turned at once to his next neighbor and 
began to talk about the crops was not stared 
at at all — he was following the fashion of the 
times. 

You stay out of the Church because you are 
as good as some Church-members, or better. 
The logic of this would keep you from eating 
your dinner because others sit down without 
appetites. 

The man who has in him the elements of a 
worker for Christ will find a field or make one. 
Paul when a prisoner made converts in Cesar's 
household. 

The fact that you have no fixed opinions on 
religious subjects does not exempt you from 
moral respDnsibility. It is your own fault. 



188 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

The call is not to begin a course of study, 
but to be holy. It is not to sit down and make 
maps of a road to be traveled, but to start at 
once. It is not to study a printed bill-of-f are, 
but to feast now on the royal bounty of the 
King, whose table is spread, and whose invita- 
tion is, " Come." 

If tempted to think that your usefulness 
would be more increased by advance in posi- 
tion than by growth in grace, it is a suggestion 
of the enemy. 

The preacher who quarrels with his own 
Church gets a backing from outside elements 
that hold aloof from him when he is fighting 
Satan. 

When you begin to ask how close you may 
go to the edge of perdition without going over, 
you are very near where the devil wants you 
to be. 

The dying send the message, "I forgive." 
Let the living send that message. It will bless 
the sender at least. 

Make your best battle at home this year. A 
victory there will double your effectiveness 
everywhere else. 



OUR FRAMES. 



I I /HERE is comfort to a true man in the 
($1(9 thought that God knows him. He ap- 
peals from the false judgments of men 
to the Searcher of hearts with absolute confi- 
dence. " O Lord, thou knowest," has been the 
final adjuration and solace of many a hunted 
and harried soul. Men seldom do know each 
other. If unlike in temperament, they never 
can obtain more than a surface-view of one 
another. They meet, pass, and repass, but 
never touch. Each knows the features of the 
other's face, but the real man within is un- 
known. In the midst of the crowd there may 
be a chilling sense of isolation. The nearest 
and dearest earthly friend may be incapable 
of giving true sympathy, may even misjudge 
us. This is a bitter experience to many souls 
finely tuned and easily jarred. The heart 
knoweth its own bitterness, and must bear its 
own burden. There is no help in man. There 
are chambers of the soul he cannot enter, 
troubles he can neither know nor soothe. The 

(189) 



190 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

burdened spirit must go to God. Its expecta- 
tion is from liim only. "He knoweth our 
frame; lie remembereth that we are dust." 
Yes, he knows; there is comfort in that. In 
the body pent, we are limited by it. The ethe- 
real spirit within is harnessed with its dull 
companion, and must creep slowly where it 
would fain -fly on eagles' wings. The flesh is 
weak, and drags down the willing spirit. It is 
dust, and dust has its limitations from which 
it shall not be freed till this mortal puts on 
immortality. The soul has will, purpose, is 
fixed on God; the body has its frames, being 
matter, and subject to its laws. Herein is the 
necessity that we should deal justly with our- 
selves. "God has not made sad all that are 
sad." The weakened eye-sight carries the 
darkened landscape wherever it goes. The 
shrinking flesh complains even when the vic- 
tory and the day-break are at hand. Mortal 
terror clouds immortal bliss -at times, for we 
are but dust on one side of our nature. There 
are morbid moments when the soul is self- 
accusing and self-torturing, bound with the 
chains of the body. Purposes and frames are 
different things. God knows the difference. 
He does not condemn, but pities and helps. 
He pities now, and will send help in his own 
best way and in his own good time. " Who is 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 191 

among yon that feareth the Lord, that obey- 
eth the voice of his servant, that walketh in 
darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in 
the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.'' 
The depressed frame of mind will pass away, 
but the word of the Lord abideth forever. 
There is a cloud between the soul and its Sun, 
but behind the cloud it is shining with unfail- 
ing splendor. We walk by faith, not by sight. 
We look to Jesus, not at ourselves; to his 
atoning blood and availing intercessions, not 
to our own frames or fears. We therefore en- 
dure as seeing him who is invisible, and are 
able to bear hardness as good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ. " Weeping may endure for a night, but 
joy cometh in the morning." The morning 
cometh; we will wait through the weary watch- 
es of the night; we will wait upon God. 

The divine and the human interblend mar- 
velously now. Where the one ends and the 
other begins we cannot always tell. Earth and 
heaven mingle in our frames. The love and 
mercy of the all-pitying Father is in all. Only 
let us see to it that there is no willful distrust 
of him in our depression, and no sinful forget- 
f ulness of him in our joyous moods, and all will 
be well with us. 



192 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

C70ME discount on apparent results of re- 
a£/ ligious labor may always be expected. 
The treasure of heavenly truth and grace is in 
earthen vessels. This is the struggling mili- 
tant Church. Absolute perfection is found 
only in the Church triumphant. Therefore, 
let no pastor be discouraged when he finds 
revival raptures succeeded by inconsistencies 
and short-comings. Let no pastor lose his 
patience. In dealing with the inexperienced, 
the ignorant, and the wayward, he will find 
occasion for the development of his own spir- 
itual life, and will learn " that wisdom which is 
love." 

It is a great misfortune to have religious 
terminology lose its significance — to have the 
hot metal' turn into cold cinders. This has 
happened with all religionists whose forms of 
speech have outlived the history that gave 
them birth. The breath of God will make 
these dry bones live again. In a genuine re- 
vival of religion dead words are raised to life 
again. ■__ 

The difference between the man who changes 
his associates because they are corrupt and the 
man who changes his because he is himself 
corrupted is so plain that popular opinion nev- 
er fails to see it. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 193 

The citizen who sins a little against morality 
and whose conscience hurts him for so doing 
is found on the side of the right when a great 
crisis compels men to take sides. Lifted for 
the time being to a higher plane and into the 
companionship of the best, he is thenceforth a 
better man. A great moral crisis is a purifier 
of the national life. 



It is strange that the cant about the oppo- 
sition of theologians to science is still kept up. 
There is no such opposition; but when the man 
with the microscope tells the world there is no 
sun in the heavens, he is laughed at. 



The man who is indifferent to the religious 
welfare of those who plow his fields and cook 
his meals can never persuade a righteous God 
that he is in earnest in his efforts to save the 
heathen in distant lands. 

— t 

The point of danger to a man who wants to 
do right, but is not absolutely firm, is when he 
is opposed by sinister methods. The tempta- 
tion to retaliate in kind will be strong. 



Do not mistake a temptation for an oppor- 
tunity. Sometimes the one looks very like the 
other. Apply the prayer-test. 
13 



194 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The first question to ask in making choice 
of a school for your child is the moral quality 
of the man or woman who is at its head. The 
parent who puts any other question before this 
is unworthy of the sacred relation. 



The Church of Christ does its proper work 
by its own agencies and methods. It cannot 
be hitched on as a tender to ephemeral human 
organizations of any kind whatsoever. 



Barnabas did not locate because he could 
not agree with Paul. He changed his plan of 
personal operations, but kept to his work. This 
is always the better course. 



The heaviest burden you carry is not anxi- 
ety for yourself, but for another. That means 
that you must do your part in making the 
heaven you hope to enter. 



The contest for honors in the Church does 
not make any man mean or unjust; it only stirs 
up the sediment which was already at the bot- 
tom of his heart. 

The great things have been done by men 
who were not thinking of doing great things: 
they only thought of daily duty. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 195 

The river of God should be pouring its wa- 
ters through the Church all the time. Saving 
power should be looked for at every service, 
and its doors should swing wide continually. 

When a bad man seeks to destroy a good 
man who has stood in the way of some selfish 
scheme, and fails, even sanctified human nature 
feels a peculiar satisfaction. 



Soldiers sicken and die in crowded camps. 
In the field they grow strong and gain victo- 
ries. Keep the militant Church on the march. 



Do not let your Church-membership become 
a snare to you. If you are living wrong, there 
is danger inside as there would be outside. 



" The revival began with a money sermon." 
There is no better way for a genuine work of 
grace to begin. (See Malachi iii. 10.) 



If you allow somebody else to bear your 
part of the burden, you will also allow him to 
take your part of the blessing. 



If the preachers vacated their pulpits as 
lightly as many laymen vacate their pews, what 
would become of the Church? 



196 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Some of the most fruitful lives that have 
blessed this world looked like failures to their 
contemporaries. Some of the greatest appar- 
ent successes have dwindled to naught in a 
single generation. Do your work and sing 
your song of joy. 

Your child possessing the largest possibili- 
ties for good is the one exposed to the great- 
est peril. For that child you must watch and 
pray accordingly. ______ 

That last fifteen minutes of labored and ir- 
relevant rhetoric spoiled the effect of the ser- 
mon. The preacher made his point and then 
flattened it out. 

There are many men and women who are 
quick to pity and help physical weakness or 
lameness who treat mental imbecility as if it 
were a crime. 

Keen-scented natures may be needed in the 
Church, but a body all nose would be a mon- 
strosity. Criticism and charity should go to- 
gether. , 

Young preachers discourse on family gov- 
ernment oftener than old ones. Here is food 
for reflection for both classes. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 197 



It is a misfortune to a preacher or other 
Christian to have his knowledge of human nat- 
ure increase more rapidly than his love for the 
souls of men. 

The unconverted soul in the Church listen- 
ing to "big sermons" on abstract questions is 
just where Satan will be willing to have him 
remain. 

It is a mistake for an eloquent man to think 
that his country has no claim upon his elo- 
quence save when he is himself a candidate for 
office. 

Denominational exclusiyeness is a Chinese 
wall inside of which its self -doomed victims 
starve to death. 

When the magistrate is not a terror to evil- 
doers, you may be sure that he is a terror to 
tax-payers. 

A drunkard clothed with law-making power 
is an incendiary in the temple of liberty, torch 
in hand. 

Sociability after a sort is common. Chris- 
tian sociability is rare. Study out the differ- 
ence. 



198 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

There are Christian men who possess every 
qualification for usefulness but one, namely, 
moral courage. They have knowledge, they 
have healthy moral instincts, they have sound 
opinions concerning moral questions; but they 
are as timid as hares. They tremble when 
they hear the sound of battle. When the con- 
flict waxes hot they turn and flee. Timidity is 
constitutional with some people, but grace can 
overcome it. Grace does overcome it in all 
who obtain the perfect victory of faith. 



The best reply to the cavils and quibbles of 
infidelity is an exhibition of the energy and 
the fruits of a living Christianity. A genuine 
revival of religion is better than the ablest 
course of lectures on "the evidences." Con- 
versions are demonstrations. 



When you see a tree with trunk, branches, 
and good fruit, you may be sure it has roots. 
Such a tree is Christianity. It is not neces- 
sary to go to digging for the roots every time 
an infidel assaults it. 



Skeptics will believe that Christians are sin- 
cere when they display a zeal and make sacri- 
fices commensurate with the grandeur of their 
profess 3d beliefs and hopes, and not before. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 199 

Would any parent walking along the high- 
way with his child pause to give it an oppor- 
tunity to witness a crime that was being per- 
petrated? Would he wish his girl or boy to 
hear from the lips of some foul-mouthed creat- 
ure in human shape a detailed narration of 
some shameful or fiendish act? How is it, 
then, that a class of crimes that are not allowed 
even to be mentioned in the family circle may 
be detailed without reserve in the family news- 
paper? Wherein is the difference? Is foul- 
ness less foul when received through the eye 
than through the ear? 



They keep forming new societies all over the 
country — societies political, social, reformato- 
ry, literary, benevolent, speculative. It is a 
mania. The waste of time and money is enor- 
mous. The confusion is distracting. We fear 
many forget that they hold membership with 
the human race at large. Too much machine- 
ry, too little healthy life. 



The man who makes a resolution to quit 
drinking, swearing, or any other bad habit for 
a given time only, is trifling. There is no re- 
formatory purpose in his heart. If you feel 
that you ought to do better, play the man — 
put away puerilities and shams. 



200 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The arrogance of materialists on the one 
hand, and the imbecility of many ignorant vol- 
unteer defenders of the truth on the other, may 
retard the coming of the bridal-day, but relig- 
ion and science will be wedded in a lawful and 
eternal union. Pending this happy consum- 
mation, let speculators be prudent, and let be- 
lievers be patient. 

It is impossible for you to enjoy the fruits 
of religion without working for them if you are 
able to work. You should not wish it. You 
need not hope for it. Think of this, and per- 
haps you may discover the secret of a bar- 
ren and joyless religious life. Only the labor- 
ers in the Master's vineyard will receive his 
wages. 

Now and then we read of some simpleton 
being blown to atoms by a shell plowed up or 
picked up on an old battle-field. So it is with 
us when we dig up an old quarrel — there is 
death in it still. Let dead controversies stay 
dead. 

Your encouragement to pray in faith for 
the salvation of the soul near and dear to you 
is that intercessory prayer stands on the same 
basis as prayer for yourself, namely, the prom- 
ise of God. 



THE LOST JEWEL FOUND. 



WITH the access of self-consciousness, 
a child loses somewhat of grace and 
sweetness. Then comes the " gawky 
age," the transition period. The self -poise 
that follows contact with the world has not yet 
come, but the child has passed the boundary 
of that world in which there is only unques- 
tioning trust and simple innocence. This is a 
season of torture to many of the finest natures 
of both sexes. When they have passed beyond 
it, if they have gained by eating of the fruit of 
the tree of knowledge, they have lost a jewel 
of priceless value; a charm has vanished, and 
a power is lost, when this child-nature is gone. 
Whoso hath passed this line is earth-born in 
a double sense. Thenceforth above him arches 
a duller sky; upon his ear there fall jarring 
notes in the song of the universe. Dim mem- 
ories of that earlier time may float through the 
soul, and echoes of those morning songs may 
still be caught in quiet moments when the 
truer, diviner voices can be heard; but the 

(201) 



202 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

heaven that lay about the soul recedes farther 
and farther until the initiated worldling sinks 
into the self-conscious, self-seeking crowd w T ho 
are all of the earth, earthy. 

This lost jewel is recovered in the new birth 
of the soul. The converted become as little 
children. They are translated out of self and 
into Christ. They live a new life in a new 
world. Old things are passed away, and all 
things are become new. Self is swallowed up 
in an absorbing devotion to Him who hath 
loved them and given himself for them. In 
the blessedness of conscious fellowship with 
God, the soul is lifted above the plane of anx- 
ious self-consciousness. Hid with Christ in 
God, it is exalted above the storms that sweep 
the lower air, and the sunshine of Immanuel's 
face beams on it evermore. The vision is filled 
by the one glorious Object of faith, and all in- 
ferior objects and aims are lost sight of. 

The preacher thus inspired by an indwell- 
ing Christ has no fear of human criticism, and 
with tongue of fire declares the whole counsel 
of God. Hid behind the cross, he is mindful 
only of his solemn message from God, and 
cares as little for the cavils of men as for the 
idle wind. Knowing nothing but Jesus Christ 
and him crucified, there is no shadow of self 
between his soul and the Sun of righteousness. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 203 

The truth as it is in Jesus is delivered with 
its full force, and is the power of God unto 
salvation. Emptied of self, the fullness of God 
pours into the soul. Then "there is power in 
the pulpit, and responsive movement in the 
pews. And having thus the mind that was in 
Christ Jesus, there is awakened a pity for the 
lost so intense that all selfish subjectivity is 
consumed in the burning fires of a zeal like 
that of the Master. Armed with this weapon 
from the heavenly armory, the little Davids of 
the pulpit have slain the Goliaths of error — the 
weak things of the world confounding the 
mighty. The Christ is incarnated in every 
such consecrated soul, and works through it as 
the wisdom of God and the power of God. 
There is no measuring the power of a minis- 
try that knows nothing but Christ. The least 
touch of selfishness withers this flower of par- 
adise. In the pulpit it makes the words of 
life but as sounding brass, or a tinkling cym- 
bal. The live coal from the altar dies into a 
dead cinder at its chilling touch. The inspired 
apostle of Jesus Christ becomes a mere atti- 
tudinizer for the gaze of fools whose selfish 
blindness is his only protection from dying of 
self -contempt. Of all sad spectacles this side 
of hell, there is none sadder than that of a 
minister of God who has put himself in the 



204 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

place of his Master. On the other hand, there 
is no diviner joy this side of heaven than that 
felt by the preacher who loses himself in his 
mighty theme, and, glorying only in the cross, 
is lifted by it to the heights where he enters 
into full fellowship with his risen Lord. 

This transformation gives new blessedness 
and beauty to the lives of all who are truly 
born into the new life. It gives the finishing 
touch and crowning grace to motherhood. It 
invests the toils and cares of the Christian 
husband and father with a new meaning and 
power. It adds to friendship an element that 
makes it holy. When in full development, it 
makes the Church of God the perfection of 
beauty, the joy of the whole earth. 






GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 205 

YOUR consecration is imperfect. This makes 
imperfection in all your religious life. It 
cuts you from the best that is possible for you. 
You keep back part of the price, and so rob 
yourself of part of the blessing. You would 
be glad to have the fullness of present joy and 
future glory, but you do not meet the condi- 
tion, which is entire consecration to God. This 
entire consecration is possible for you this 
year. What is it? It is to follow Christ with- 
out reserve. In these seven words you have 
both the description of what it is and the 
means by which it is to be attained. 



When you have looked into a man's eyes, 
and spoken the faithful word that touched his 
conscience, thenceforth there is a sacred bond 
between you and him ; you have broken down 
the barrier that prevented approach to his soul. 
By God's help you may save that man. 



The brother who spends all his summers 
traveling or visiting " the Springs," and is too 
busy for Church-work in winter, expects to do 
more for his Lord at some future time. AVhen? 



The ideal Christian man eludes your search, 
but do not give up the ideal. It is the goal 
of your own onward movement. 



206 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Peril is proportioned to advantage. We 
must be educated and disciplined in the midst 
of danger and difficulty. The golden age of 
earth and the eternity of heaven are to be the 
inheritance not of weaklings and " innocents," 
but of souls that have run the gantlet of pro- 
bationary perils and fought their way to the 
skies. 

Many of the noblest men on earth are those 
who have had a fall in their temporal fortunes, 
and are sailing stormy seas like dismasted 
ships still battling with wind and wave. We 
feel like lifting our hat when we meet one of 
these noble men whose manhood survives the 
loss of money. 

When your boy begins to think out for him- 
self the great problems of religion, do not be 
alarmed at the questions he asks. Be patient 
and sympathetic. If his life be pure, he will 
make that his by conquest which he'had already 
by inheritance. _____ 

The men who find themselves drifting into 
antagonism of feeling toward each other, just 
as soon as there seems to be a probability of 
antagonism of interest or aspiration, should 
seek w T ith penitent hearts the place of secret 
prayer. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 207 

We were present when a pastor of another 
denomination announced his resignation to his 
people. When the poor people and the women 
in mourning apparel began to weep, w^e knew 
that preacher was in the true apostolic succes- 
sion. _____ 

A man w T ho, for any purpose, tries to make 
a mock martyr of himself will end in being a 
martyr in every thing but the crowning. It is 
a pitiful role. 

9 

If all systems of government, both civil and 
ecclesiastical, that are at times maladminis- 
tered, were to be destroyed, universal anarchy 
would result. 

Christianity is the cure for all Communistic 
ideas and agitations. It makes the rich just 
and merciful; it makes the poor patient and 
hopeful. 

A little prosperity is so harmful to some 
men who have much good in them that a kind 
but invisible hand pulls them down to safer 
footing. 

Your neighbor would stare at you in sur- 
prise were you to bring to his notice the sub- 
ject of personal religion. Ask yourself why. 



208 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The question of the efficacy of prayer in 
epidemics is too solemn to be treated hastily, 
and too vast to be disposed of in one of these 
paragraphs; but we want to say: Every link 
in the chain of causation touches the throne 
of God. This makes room for prayer. A great 
and blessed truth answers to the universal in- 
stinct which prompts men and women to prayer 
in the hour of danger or of sorrow. 



The man -who persists in sinning, because 
he hopes punishment for sin is not eternal, is 
cherishing the disposition which will harden 
him into permanent separation from God. 



To suppose that much-needed moral reforms 
can be effected without friction is foolish. 
Virtue and vice when they touch must coalesce 
or fight. Peace comes by victory. 



When the "Acts of the Apostates" shall be 
written, the name of the man who struck a 
secret blow at a brother who might get in his 
way will be in the book. 



If you wait for the poor to hunt you up and 
force their necessities upon your attention, you 
are not " remembering " them in the true spirit 
of the Bible command; 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 209 

" Support of the preacher " means that yon 
shall be ready on proper occasion to defend 
him against captious criticism and unjust com- 
plaint. In every congregation there are these 
captious critics and chronic complainers. The 
most absolute ministerial fidelity gives no ex- 
emption from their buffets and stings. To 
listen to these cavils in silence, or to yield a 
politic half-way sort of assent to them, is not 
supporting your preacher. The relation you 
hold to your pastor makes you a guardian and 
defender of his good name as a minister of 
Jesus Christ. He is set for the defense of the 
truth, and it is your duty to defend him. 



Preachers and others are sometimes tempted 
to think that they could be more useful in a 
wider sphere of service. If the history of the 
Church proves any one thing clearly, it is this: 
That the true man ennobles a mean place, and 
that no advantage of position can raise an in- 
ferior man above the level of his own charac- 
ter. It is the man, not the place, that counts. 



The descriptions of heaven represent reali- 
ties. What a change of moral atmosphere it 
would be to many who are professed Christians ! 
Be not deceived; there can be no heaven for 
any but the heavenly-minded. 
14 




The man who studies how he may " skimp " 
in his contributions to Christianity should 
make a special study of the Bible with refer- 
ence to Christian beneficence. That would 
open to him a world of new ideas, and, if he 
would walk in the light thus discovered, a 
world of new joys. 

The believer who employs now the phrase- 
ology used by the apostles, in describing the 
Christian life, is looked upon by some as a 
weakling or a fanatic. But that is. no reason 
why you should lower the standard either in 
your Christian nomenclature or your experi- 
ence. 

At the very last, you purpose to let go your 
besetting sin — it is too dear to be given up 
sooner. This means that you will carry its guilt 
with you into eternity. Tou must choose while 
a choice is free. 

When we reach heaven, we will be astonished 
to find how much mere mannerism prevented 
us from fully appreciating many excellent 
people. 

The peace of God is always accompanied by 
the power of God. The peace without the 
power is a false peace. 



When, in a controversy, you are more anx- 
ious to make a point against somebody than 
to get at the truth, it is time to quit disputing 
and go to praying. 

Teach your children to love nature. That 
is the next best book to the Bible. Such a 
passion will help to keep the soul always fresh, 
sweet, and true. 

When a man finds himself falling' behind, 
let him quicken his own movement rather than 
try to check a brother who may be a little 
ahead of him. 

If the preacher's own spirit falls below the 
letter of his teaching with regard to self-sacri- 
fice, he will educate his people downward, not 
upward. 

If you draw back from holiness now, you 
would do the same in heaven if you could stay 
there without it. 

While he was here in the flesh, some went 
to Jesus to be healed, and others to dispute. It 
is so now. _' 

Do not be discouraged because you have lost 
time and made blunders. Eternity is yours. 



212 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

In order that advice or reproof may be ef- 
fectual for good, the recipient must be assured 
of three things, namely: First, that the advisor 
or censor is kindly disposed; second, that he is 
well informed concerning the matters in ques- 
tion; and third, that there is no beam in the 
eye that is so keen in its search for motes. 



A man who has nothing to lose by bad gov- 
ernment or anarchy is a dangerous member of 
the body politic. Therefore so frame the laws 
and so administer them that all men, even the 
weakest and poorest, may find protection and 
stimulus to hopeful exertion. 



When, in regard to any controverted ques- 
tion, a man's opinions coincide with his per- 
sonal interests, it is well for that man to review 
such opinions carefully and prayerfully. 



One boy will want to take a watch to pieces 
to see how it runs; another will be content to 
know that it keeps good time. These boys are 
types of two classes in the Church. 



Until you can contemplate the holiness of 
God with awful yet real satisfaction, you have 
cause to fear that you have in your nature that 
which antagonizes it. 



m 



REPUTATION. 



OST good things are attended with 
danger proportioned to their value. 
Strength, beauty, genius, all come un- 
der this law. The law is equitable; much is 
required, and much is imperiled, where much 
is given. 

Reputation is a good thing. It is the dear- 
est jewel of noble souls. It is rather to be 
chosen than great riches. It is a good man's 
capital for usefulness; it is the precious her- 
itage of his children, abiding as an incentive 
to virtue and high endeavor when power is 
lost and property scattered to the winds. But 
there is danger in it. It has burdened and 
crippled many a minister of the gospel — it has 
ruined some. It has happened that a strong 
man has given himself up to the nursing of a 
reputation, and the earnest, whole-hearted 
preacher has become as hollow and dry as last 
year's gourds hanging in the sunshine. From 
one of our grandest of pulpit orators, who was 
also one of the manliest of men, was wrung 

(213) 



214 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

the sad confession that he had fallen a victim 
to the exactions of a splendid reputation. 
Many more have met the disaster who have 
never made the confession. It is a hard bond- 
age to which a man sells himself when he falls 
into this category. He is always on the stretch. 
His self -consciousness is painful as it is cramp- 
ing. His attitude toward the public is that of 
a performer hungry for applause, his attitude 
toward himself is that of a critic whose anx- 
iety is mingled with self-love involving the 
torture of apprehended failure or the ridicu- 
lousness of self-conceit. It is astonishing how 
this weakness will grow on a good man who 
once yields to it. It insinuates itself stealth- 
ily into the heart, and intrenches itself there 
by the sophisms that human nature is so 
ready to accept. " I must do my best to-day, 
for the honor of my Church and the cause of 
my Master are at stake." That is the subtle 
suggestion of the tempter, and so a great ef- 
fort must be made lest the famous preacher 
fall below himself and the occasion. It is 
obvious enough that all spontaneity of im- 
pulse, all unconscious grace, all high enthusi- 
asm must freeze and die in the presence of 
such thoughts as these. The wise teacher and 
inspired preacher becomes a mere mechanical 
declaimer, a retailer of stage -fire rhetoric. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 215 

The glowing evangelist sinks into the nurse of 
a reputation. 

This danger attends the possession of all 
special gifts. The possessor is conscious that 
the public gaze is fixed upon him. A single 
false step will precipitate him from the ladder 
of petty distinction. He must be careful to 
sustain himself. The man who has made a 
reputation for profundity must never lose the 
gravity of the owl or the weightiness of an 
oracle. The man who has the gift of humor 
must be funny whether he feels like it or not, 
in season and out of season. He who is re- 
puted to have a head for finance must be 
ready to demonstrate Christianity by the Rule 
of Three. All these, to meet popular expecta- 
tion, and to maintain their reputations, must 
be held in this hard bondage under a false 
conception of duty; they must be one-sided, 
and shorn of half their power for good. 

The one way of escape is to seek at the 
mercy-seat the mind that was in Christ Jesus 
in the full baptism of the Holy Spirit that 
puts self aside and exalts only the cross. 

There is an increasing number of princely 
givers to religion and philanthropy in these 
latter days. These men and women are the 
product of the Christianity that is leavening 
all governments, institutions, literature, and 



216 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

life on the earth with its heavenly influence. 
They pioneer the way to a larger development 
of the true Christian idea of beneficence. The 
very magnitude of their gifts makes it impos- 
sible that they shall enjoy the luxury of anon- 
ymous giving. This is the age of daily news- 
papers, reporters, interviewers, and the electric 
telegraph. The whole civilized world is a sort 
of huge audiphone where everybody hears 
what everybody else is saying; a vast spectro- 
scope, showing what is being done everywhere. 
There are no longer any secrets in this world. 
The gas is turned on, and the evil and the good 
are alike revealed to the sight of all. So it is 
that if a good man out of love to his Lord and 
his fellow-men rises above the dead level of 
his contemporaries in his contributions in aid 
of religion and philanthropy, he will soon find 
that his name is in the newspapers and in all 
men's mouths. He will be subjected to the 
criticisms of the motley mob called the public. 
The generous, the manly, the grateful, the re- 
fined; and the narrow, the suspicious, the un- 
grateful, and the coarse, will all alike pass 
upon his work in judgment. When they all 
have spoken he will be made to feel that his 
willing offering to God has somehow lost some- 
what of the bloom and sweetness it had when 
it sprung fresh and pure from his thankful 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



217 



heart. The praises of men make heavy the 
air that was filled with the odors of heaven. 
The breath of the world has destroyed the 
delicate bloom of the flower of paradise. He 
sought to glorify his Saviour and to bless his 
kind, and he has — made a reputation. 

There is danger here, but the best men will 
escape. When a piston, wheel, or lever breaks 
under a strain, it is because there was a flaw 
in the metal. But let each steward of the gifts 
and grace of God watch lest he enter into 
temptation. 



® tyj&s 




218 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

\ I /HE early Christians adopted no assessment 
A limitation in their gifts for the spread of 
the gospel. They gave as the Lord prospered 
them — all they could. An assessment is only 
the indication of a minimum, but many take 
it as the measure of obligation — and then often 
fall below it. Look into your New Testament, 
beloved. 

Often that which looks like cowardice is only 
the hesitation caused by confusion of ideas. 
The bravery that helps good causes is con- 
joined with clear-headedness. 



The failure of your plan is a call to review 
the situation, and to ask with all humility and 
docility of spirit, Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do? 

Some men whom you dislike are useful. 
Perhaps the Lord of the harvest sees in them 
something good that escapes your notice. 



The truth that has stirred your own soul 
with holy aspiration is the truth you owe to 
others. 

The true way to "turn over a new leaf " with 
the new year is to turn to Christ. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 219 

Not every man who cheers you on in attack- 
ing somebody he does not like will stand by 
you when you are hard pressed in the fight 
Do not mistake identity of prejudice for reli- 
able support. 

The pastoral charge that has a revival every 
year, and yet never makes any progress in the 
measure of its contributions to the cause of 
Christ, needs reviving on a new and better 
basis. 

When a young man for the first time omits 
the prayer he promised his mother to make 
before going to sleep at night, a downward step 
is taken by him. 

That " bad cold " that kept you from Church 
on Sunday, but did not keep you from busi- 
ness on Saturday and Monday, is dangerous. 
Watch it. 

The tone given to the first year of a new 
convert's life in a great measure determines 
his whole career. Pastors will make the de- 
duction. 

The way to spoil a good work done for the 
Lord is to sit down and praise yourself men- 
tally for doing it. 



220 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

As long as human nature remains what it is, 
there will be frequently recurring temptation 
to noble spirits to break away in disgust from 
cooperative Christian service with men who 
are narrow, mean, and selfish. But in doing 
so they sink toward the level of these ignoble 
ones. It is easy to be a hero among heroes. 



The man whose own heart is full of the love 
of God will not be likely to take despondent 
views of the progress of the gospel in the earth. 
Under the baptism of the Pentecost, the apos- 
tles set out to convert the world at once, be- 
lieving that they could do it. 



It is one of the surest, as it is one of the 
rarest, signs of high Christian culture when a 
finely toned, refined soul can be patient and 
loving toward a coarser, ruder nature that has 
only the one redeeming quality of sincerity. 



The expository sermon to be successful must 
not be an exposure of the preacher's lack of 
knowledge. A false exposition is worse than 
a rambling exhortation. 



The apostolic injunction to believers is to 
comfort one another when they meet; their 
practice is to gossip with one another. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 221 

The man who has grown to maturity without 
having learned to submit to proper human 
authority will find it doubly difficult to submit 
to God. In such a soul there is but a flimsy 
basis for a true religious life. The founda- 
tion-stone has never been laid, and the work 
which ought to have been done in the nursery 
must be begun after the moral nature has 
hardened into enduring form from the habi- 
tudes of a life-time. God's method is to make 
earthly parenthood the basis of the divine. 



The bigotry is sometimes in the man, and 
sometimes in the system to which he is com- 
mitted. The trouble is, you cannot meet the 
good man more than half-way without a sort 
of tacit indorsement of the bad system. Mor- 
al: Let him adopt a better system. 



The functions of the physician and the min- 
ister of the gospel have much in common. The 
highest men in each of these callings have 
something of the best elements that are requi- 
site to success in both. The alliance between 
them should be closer than it is. 



The preaching that leaves out human guilt 
and divine redemption leaves out the gospel, 
and had as well be omitted altogether. 



2-22 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The Christian who can make a good stump- 
speech or law argument, and yet is too bash- 
ful to conduct family-prayer, has something 
the matter with him. Perhaps it is an abnor- 
mal nervous organization. 



Every earnest man is at some time or other 
laughed at or denounced as an enthusiast. Our 
Lord himself did not escape. Nor did Paul. 
Nor will you if you do any thing out of the 
perfunctory routine. 



If your religion consists only of occasional 
pecuniary contributions and occasional visits to 
the house of God, what enjoyment will you get 
from it in heaven — -supposing you go thither? 



The first thing Andrew did after he had met 
the Christ was to go after his brother. All 
true converts feel the same gracious instinct 
to go home and tell the glad news. 



A gloomy Christian shadows his own land- 
scape. The sunshine on the hills of Beulah 
.he never sees. By and by he will persuade 
himself that it is not there. 



The sin which pleases your imagination has 
already damaged your soul. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 223 

The Church of Christ makes frequent calls 
for money. When it ceases to do so, the fount- 
ain of beneficence will be dried up, and the 
flowers of love will no longer blossom on earth. 



Many preachers have found the richest 
blessings and greatest fruitfulness where they 
did not want to go. Self-sacrifice is a magnet 
that attracts to it every good thing. 



Do you find yourself becoming more suspi- 
cious as you grow older? It may be a sign 
rather of growing hardness of nature than of 
increasing acumen. 



The brother who has, and expresses, a high 
opinion of what he intends to do is not always 
the one who shows the largest actual results. 



The educator who instills into his pupil am- 
bition for distinction solely for its own sake 
does a work that Satan approves. 



If walking in the way of duty requires you 
to walk alone for a season, keep on; the angels 
of God will meet you. 



To the true man the success of a cherished 
idea is dearer than the paternity of it. 



224 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The friend or relative who resisted your ar- 
guments so stoutly and successfully will not 
resist your example. Even Satan cannot sug- 
gest a plausible answer to simple, straightfor- 
ward goodness. 

After Paul and Barnabas had parted, finding 
they could not work together satisfactorily, 
there is no evidence that either ever spoke an 
unkind word of the other. It is not always so 
now. 

Is it holiness you want, or only its reward? 
Blessed are they that hunger after righteous- 
ness — not they who merely want to be filled 
with joy. 

The Church that lives by proselyting cannot 
grow fast. You cannot transplant trees as rap- 
idly as you can propagate them in a nursery. 



The backsliding of which you are conscious 
is not always the worst. Deadness is more 
dreadful than painful sensibility. 



In dealing with an unfair man, two dangers 
are to be guarded against — -losing your temper, 
or losing your own fairness. 



.a ■ — S r-^^H ^ ^ ^*^-^3 — -• i. 

THE ONE CONDITION. 



Y^TIDELITY is the condition of fruitful- 

p ^ ness in the Christian life. It is the only 
condition. Read the first eight verses 
of the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. 
John. " He that abideth in me, and I in him, 
the same bringeth forth much fruit." This 
is the explicit statement of a most comforting 
truth for every man and woman who is striv- 
ing to live a true Christian life. The desire 
for fruitfulness follows the satisfied yearn- 
ing for pardon and purity. The unfruitful 
branch is always a dead branch. Hear it, ye 
that are standing idle all day long! Hear it, 
ye that are at ease in Zion! If ye are fruit- 
less, ye are lifeless. "Every branch in me 
that beareth not fruit he taketh away," because 
it is a withered branch, and fit for nothing but 
destruction. 

"He that abideth in me." That is, whoso- 
ever abides in Christ by faith. Faith is the 
bond of union between the believing soul and 
its Saviour. This faith is the choice of the 
15 (225) 



226 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

will, the trust of the heart. It is unreserved 
devotion to Christ. It is bringing thought, 
feeling, and action in willing obedience to him. 
It is a continual act, the living sacrifice, holy 
and acceptable, of the soul born from above 
and walking in newness of life. 

"And I in him." That is, in whomsoever I 
abide by my Spirit. The indwelling Spirit 
gives power and fruitfulness to the believer's 
life. It gives the seal of pardon, the witness 
of adoption, the comfort of conscious commun- 
ion with God, and the earnest of the inherit- 
ance. It takes and shows to him the things 
of Jesus Christ. Thus his life is hid with 
Christ in God, and he goes in the strength of 
his Lord, bringing forth the fruits of right- 
eousness in all the devotions and activities of 
practical godliness. 

In all cases in which this relation is main- 
tained the life is not only fruitful, but abun- 
dantly fruitful. He that is faithful " the same " 
bringeth forth much fruit. There is no excep- 
tion to the statement. Un alloyed fidelity insures 
abundant fruitfulness. It is a wonderful say- 
ing, opening the door of enlarged opportunity 
and blessing to all the true disciples of our 
Lord. The measure of fidelity is the measure 
of fruitfulness. This opens the gate to all, 
and inspires a holy emulation in every heart 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 227 

that wishes for an abundant entrance into the 
everlasting kingdom of onr Lord Jesus Christ. 
Not only those who work, but those who pray; 
not only those who do, but those w T ho suffer; 
not only those who lead, the hosts of Israel, 
but those who fill the ranks, shall receive the 
" Well done " and the fullness of reward from 
the Master in the day of reckoning. 

There is a mystery here that shall be fully 
disclosed only in the light of eternity. How 
it is that the obscure, the Lord's little ones, 
are correlated in their influence with all the 
forces of his kingdom, their prayers, their zeal, 
their testimony, their labor of love, going into 
and swelling the mighty current of spiritual 
power that flows through the ages, is hidden 
from our eyes now, but the day shall declare 
it. Then it will be seen that there was a place 
and a work for every one. Then it will be seen 
that the apparent limitations of many lives 
were only the tests of their fidelity, and that 
the fruits of their faith and love extended far 
.beyond their own vision. While they thought 
they were only enduring pain and waiting for 
their change, they were laying up treasure in 
heaven and getting ready for an abundant en- 
trance into its everlasting joys. The isolated 
Christian, fighting the good fight of faith alone; 
the bedridden invalid, shut out from the world, 



228 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

but still able to trust and to pray; the weary 
laborer in the foreign field, sowing in tears 
and seeing no visible fruit; the family drudge 
in the tread-mill of petty cares and toils; the 
disabled minister of the gospel, crippled and 
compelled to leave the field; the aged disciple 
who has outlived the power to serve; the man 
who has been defeated, as men count defeat — 
all these may gather comfort from this saying 
of Jesus. It was spoken for them. It was 
spoken to enlarge the horizon of their hope, 
and to convey to their minds the inspiration 
of the truth that fruitfulness, blessedness, and 
glory are measured not by the fortuitous con- 
ditions of their lives, but by the fidelity of 
their hearts. God is no respecter of persons. 
His ways are equal. The key that unlocks 
the treasures of his grace is placed in the 
hand of every true-hearted disciple. He that 
is faithful over a few things shall be made 
ruler over many. It matters not how few — the 
measure of reward is not in the quantity, but 
in the quality of the service. Brethren, com- . 
fort yourselves with these words. 



QS^^yk^lk A^^^^^^ 




T\ LACK of hearty sympathy between the 
*3l Christian laborers in any given field often 
destroys half their power for good. The prov- 
idence that throws them together is a call to 
them to overcome prejudices, heal all wounds, 
and let Christian love work its wonders in 
willing hearts. 

Pastor, that straying member of your Church 
might resent a plain talk from you now. Nev- 
ertheless, go to him and speak the truth in 
love. His resentment now will be easier for 
you to bear than his reproaches at the day of 
judgment. 

" Call on the old man to pray — all these peo- 
ple know him and believe in him,' , said the 
pastor to a visiting preacher. That plain, sim- 
ple-hearted old disciple had a precious gift for 
usefulness among his neighbors— undoubted 
sincerity. 

When a preacher's personal habits discount 
the gospel he preaches in the estimation of 
young people, it is time for a friend to give 
him a hint. 

Inspiration is a dead thing only to him who 
is dead to aspiration. The measure of recep- 
tivity is the measure of bestowment. 



230 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The holiness enjoined upon us in the Script- 
ures is attainable. There was no mental reser- 
vation in our Lord's command, and there should 
be none in our interpretation of it. The time 
spent in explaining away his gracious mean- 
ing, if spent in prayer for the blessing, would 
fill many a heart and many a Church with a 
diviner and fuller Christian life. 



The nearer you get to Christ the more likely 
you will be to draw your unconverted friend 
to him. It is a sad blunder to go half-way 
into the world with your friends that you may 
keep your hold on their affection and confi- 
dence. Your compromise of principle breaks 
the heavenly charm of true religious attraction. 



It is a happy circumstance when the young 
people of the Church can make a religious at- 
mosphere of their own warm with the generous 
enthusiasm of young blood and with the love 
of Christ. The wise pastor will seek to devel- 
op such a sentiment and organize it. 



Jonah was very angry because Nineveh was 
not destroyed, he having predicted it. The 
preacher who lost half his interest in the re- 
vival after another brother took the lead in it 
had some Jonah in his heart. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 231 

The prevalent sentimentalism that ignores 
all the more awful attributes of the Almighty 
and Eternal God is filling the Churches with 
religious namby-pambyism, and the outside 
world with flippancy and irreverence. 



The man you have prayed for with earnest- 
ness of true Christian feeling draws you to 
him like a magnet ever afterward. The prayer 
of faith and the labor of love go together. 



We plan to suit ourselves, and fail. Again 
we go right on in the path that opens of itself 
before our advancing steps, and the flowers of 
paradise fill the air with their odors. 



You think it is time you were taken out of 
the crucible; you have had your share of trial, 
and you have learned its lesson. Your impa- 
tience is proof to the contrary. 



The problem of the universe is to be solved 
by degrees — one world at a time. The prob- 
lem for this world is deliverance' from sin. 
Solve it because you can. 



The man who cannot "do his best" except 
in the presence of an admiring crowd has a 
false notion of what the best is. 



232 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

It only takes a little time ordinarily to dis- 
tinguish between the sensationalist who makes 
an erratic dash that he may put people to talk- 
ing about him, and the man who takes a step 
in advance of his fellows in obedience to his 
convictions. The one falls like a kite when 
the wind lulls; the other shines on like a star 
in the sky. 

It is not every man who has abundant sub- 
jectivity who is a self-seeker. But it looks so 
much like it in the eyes of common people 
that a wise man will repress its exhibition as 
far as he can. 

" She was a cheerful giver, and did not wait 
to be solicited." This remark was made in the 
obituary of a Christian woman. It goes to the 
heart of the matter. The cheerful giver is a 
volunteer. 

When a portion of the working forces of the 
Church hibernates in winter, and another reg- 
ularly vacates in summer, the devil, who never 
hibernates nor vacates, is likely to get the up- 
per-hand. 

The battle for truth is never a lost battle. 
The truth is rooted in God, and when you 
overthrow him you can overthrow it. 



SORROW UPON SORROW. 



\ I I HE experience of the author of the forty - 
d I © second Psalm is not an uncommon one. 
He had enjoyed the blessedness of com- 
munion with God, and the joy of participation 
with his people in the glad festivals of the 
Church. His soul had glowed in the light of 
God's countenance. The memory of those days 
was still sweet. Ah, those old days! — they 
were so bright, so fleeting. We thought they 
would last forever. The world without and 
that within were set to the same music. The 
air was full of sunshine and fragrance. The 
days were joyous, and the nights were restful. 
We could not believe that we ever should sin 
or suffer again. To a majority of Christian 
men and women there comes this season of 
uninterrupted peace and joy. To some it comes 
suddenly in a mighty flood that sweeps the 
rejoicing soul out on a sea of love that seems 
to be fathomless and shoreless. To others it 
comes as the gentle yet perceptible rising of 
a tide that bears them on to that river of God 

(233) 



234 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

which is full of water. .Sickness, pain, pover- 
ty, grief, and death are but words without felt 
meanings; and the bold figures by which the 
inspired writers describe the joys of heaven 
seem almost equally applicable to the happi- 
ness of his children on the earth. The grateful 
soul soars and sings in the light of the Lord. 

But there comes a change, and with it a 
shock. Trouble comes. We rally our moral 
forces to meet it. Before we have had time 
to recover from the blow, another falls, and 
then another, and yet another. Loss succeeds 
loss, sorrow follows sorrow, until, stunned and 
almost despairing, the soul in its agony makes 
its bitter cry to God: "All thy waves and thy 
billows have gone over me!" The tempest is 
let loose upon us, and there is no lull in its 
fury. Is there to be no respite? Is God's 
mercy clean gone forever? Hath he forgotten 
to be gracious? 

This is the same God who flooded our lives 
with light and joy. Yes, the same, and work- 
ing to the same gracious ends in our behalf. 
Those long days of warmth and sunshine were 
not more the expression of his goodness and 
love than these dark days that have followed. 
The sorrow upon sorrow, rightly viewed, is 
mercy upon mercy. They are the manifesta- 
tion of a persistent purpose to bless us. They 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 235 

are not accidental or unfriendly blows aimed 
only to hurt us, but parts of a gracious proc- 
ess intended to bring us large and lasting bless- 
edness. The continuous blows reveal the lov- 
ing design. God is teaching truth and shaping 
character for eternity. He would have us 
wrestle with sorrow and pain that we may be 
strong forever. He would have us walk by 
faith in the darkness that we may nevermore 
doubt. He would subordinate present comfort 
and joy to future safety and blessedness, the 
things that are temporal to those that are eter- 
nal. It is a process, and there is solid com- 
fort in the thought that our Father in heaven 
proposes thorough work. When we are tried 
we shall come forth as gold. When we have 
run with patience we shall receive our crowns. 
The waves and billows may go over us, but 
they are not unchained; they are under the 
control of the Mighty One whom the winds and 
the waves obey. We are but following Jesus 
in the path of suffering. The Captain of our 
salvation is perfecting us by the same process 
by which he was himself perfected. In these 
depths we learn his secret, and get closer to 
his loving heart. • In a new and peculiar sense 
we suffer with him, and grasp with a new 
meaning and mighty joy the promise that wo 
shall reign with him. 



236 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

\ 17 HE early apostolic Church was a witness- 
A ing Church. The saints sang, prayed, and 
exhorted one another. The absence of the 
apostles did not silence the voice of testimony 
nor cause the work of the Lord to cease. Ev- 
ery converted man was a witness to the power 
of the gospel. Every converted woman was 
also a witness and a helper in Christ Jesus. 
Those were days of power and progress. The 
gospel had free course and was glorified, kind- 
ling wherever it touched. 



The man against whom you were prejudiced 
by another you like after you have met him 
face to face. Give him the benefit of your own 
favorable impression. Your own antipathies 
will be enough for you to account for. 



There are some finely-toned natures whose 
subtle instinct, like the diviner's rod, enables 
them to detect the hidden veins of latent good 
in the sinful. This is a gift to be coveted by 
every one who would win souls. 



To condone for the neglect of some plain 
duty that is distasteful to you by putting extra 
labor on something that suits you, is to bar- 
gain for an uneasy conscience and a crippled 
spiritual life. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 237 

If the evils that exist in the Church as well 
as in the world are as deep-seated as many 
suppose, they will not be destroyed without 
much conflict. The pastor who has in his soul 
no element of possible martyrdom does not 
suit a world and an age like this. 



The croaker who puts a weight upon the 
limbs of the workers, and the prudent coun- 
selor who pointed out errors to be avoided, are 
sometimes confounded the one with the other. 
But the difference will be seen when you ask 
each what he is willing to do. 



The opinion of a dull but honest man is a 
real factor in the formation of judgments of 
men and plans of action, but the taint of in- 
sincerity strikes even the utterance of genius 
with the blight of worthlessness. 



Working for the Church in the truest sense 
is helping individual men and women to live 
holy lives. It is not, as some seem to think, 
running a Vanity Fair under its flag. 



It was very natural for you to leave your 
Bible at home when you started on your vaca- 
tion. There is no use in cumbering yourself 
with a book you do not read. 



238 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The man who abuses his body by the viola- 
tion of the laws of health, and then spends his 
money for quack nostrums to repair the dam- 
age, is brother to the man who sins against the 
laws of God, and seeks to escape from the fear 
of punishment by taking up with the diluted 
theology of spiritual charlatans. 



The theology that gives a presumptuous sin- 
ner an indefinite number of probations after 
death, and the judicial or executive weakness 
that gives rascals the chance of indefinite ac- 
quittals or pardons in this life, are about 
equally absurd and injurious. 



The theoretical atheism of the men who 
make a trade of blasphemy is not half so 
damaging to the cause of religion as the prac- 
tical atheism that while professing godliness 
leaves God out of the life. 



When a Christian who has been born of the 
Spirit testifies for his Lord, he does not simply 
give an opinion. He is a witness to a great 
fact of personal experience. 



The most quarrelsome men on earth are the 
agnostics, or know-nothings, who say there is 
nothing known worth quarreling about. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 239 

The small-bore scientist who thinks the 
Bible is overthrown every time somebody dis- 
covers, or pretends to discover, a new kind of 
monkey's skull is becoming so ridiculous that 
he will soon learn to be silent. 



The Bible tells us what is not in heaven. 
That will do for the present. The positive 
side will come by and by — and then we shall 
be satisfied. Satisfied! how large is that word! 



The reserve force in Christianity has never 
failed to show itself in any crisis of its history, 
and it never will — because God is the preserver 
and defender of his own cause. 



Perfect — in what? In knowledge? in dia- 
lectics? No — perfect in love. That simplifies 
the matter. That makes it attainable by all, 
even the Lord's little ones. 



The view of holiness that you cannot accept 
is very precious and sacred to a brother who is 
as sincere as yourself in his love for the Lord. 
Deal gently with him. 



If you have the witness within you that you 
have been saved from sin, how can you doubt 
that every sinner can be saved? 



240 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Confectionary as an exclusive diet is not com- 
patible with good health. The secret of the 
feebleness of many Christian lives is to be 
found in their excessive indulgence in mental 
confectionery — novels, light reading, etc. You 
are one of these. 

The man who thinks Christianity is dying 
out of the world because he hears it sneered 
at and denounced in whisky-saloons and beer- 
gardens, would have a change of opinion if he 
would make a change for the better in his as- 
sociations. 

A Christian must work in faith, pray in faith, 
and give in faith. Labors, prayers, gifts, all 
fall under the same law. But many seem to 
think God must bless their gifts before they 
are made. 

The introduction of family prayer in a house- 
hold in which it has long been neglected will 
be attended with some awkwardness. But it 
will be worth more than it will cost to you and 
yours. 

The man who, in consequence of the drought, 
resolved to plow deeper next year, was wiser 
than his neighbor who took it out in grumbling 
against the Almighty. 



CHRISTIANITY THE BASIS OF 
PHILANTHROPY. 



"^TTHE poor always ye have with you." 
$ I (q Poverty is, and is to be, a permanent 
element in human society. It cannot 
be legislated out of existence. The most that 
has been or can be done in this way is to pro- 
tect it from oppression, and mitigate its harsh- 
er features. The many trades-unions and co- 
operative organizations of our day have not 
been able to abolish poverty from their ranks. 
The socialistic theories of our times have al- 
ways broken down in practice. The noisy 
political demagogues who promise a reign of 
universal affluence as the result of the adop- 
tion of their views and their own elevation to 
office have usually been the worst enemies of 
the class of whose rights and interests they 
have claimed to be the special champions. The 
true political reformer and friend of the poor 
seeks not to flatter and excite, but to instruct 
and ennoble. These times have been prolific 
of vile demagogues whose teachings would de- 
16 (241) 



242 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

stroy society altogether under the pretense of 
reforming its constitution and curing its evils. 
The historian of these days in which we live 
will also record the names of many men whose 
teachings and deeds entitle them to be ranked 
among the true reformers and friends of hu- 
manity. The popular mind may be misled for 
a time, bat its instincts may be trusted to as- 
sign every man his true place in the end. The 
modern Theudases who lead the multitude into 
the wilderness of purposeless excitement and 
fruitless agitation, and leave them to perish, 
shall not be confounded with the real philan- 
thropists who make the cause of the poor and 
oppressed their own. 

There is one broad distinction between the 
false and the true philanthropy. The false 
seeks to array one class against another. It 
organizes its so-called reforms on this basis, 
breaking up society into innumerable and 
hostile segments, class against class, interest 
against interest. Modern society is honey- 
combed with these organizations, secret and 
open, the object of which is to propagate cer- 
tain exclusive ideas, and to subserve certain 
exclusive interests. There seems to be no end 
to these organizations. The organization of a 
guild to promote one class-interest seems to 
necessitate a counter-organization in self-de- 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 243 

fense. Capital and labor, employer and em- 
ploye, producer and tradesman, manufacturer 
and consumer, landlord and tenant, are arrayed 
against each other, and the different elements 
of society are grinding and clashing fearfully 
in many places. Statesmanship has not grasped 
the true principles of political economy, and 
philanthropy is not resting on its true founda- 
tion. 

We must go back to the gospel. Jesus Christ 
defined the true relation of man to his fellow. 
He teaches human brotherhood as the basis of 
action in all men's dealings one with another. 
It is not because a man is rich or poor, of this 
family or that, of one occupation or another, 
that he has a claim upon our sympathy and 
help. It is because he is a man. He is of the 
same race, the child of one Father. No ques- 
tion of nationality, of social position, or of 
opinion, is to stand between a man and the 
need of his brother man. Every man's neigh- 
bor is the man that he can reach with his 
help. 

The gospel presents the only religion of hu- 
manity. The Church is its exponent, and the 
proper dispenser of its benefactions. The 
teaching and influence of Jesus Christ lie at 
the foundation of all the benevolent institu- 
tions that are the glory of this age, including 



244 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

even those that are held up in rivalry to his 
Church, and by many substituted for it as 
agencies for doing good. This function of the 
Church has been too much lost sight of. She 
has permitted others to do her work and take 
her crown. Her own children have sought 
other channels through which to pour the 
streams of their charities into the desert- 
places of this sorrowing world. The Church 
has been left to become a mere expounder of 
the obligations of human brotherhood, while 
other hands have ministered and taken the 
credit of the benefactions which had their root 
in the teachings of her Founder, and which 
her own hands should dispense. The glory of 
Christ has been given to another. 

The New Testament Church, with its voice 
of tender pity and its hand of help and heal- 
ing, drew the hearts of mankind to it in grat- 
itude and love. Abdicating its function as 
an agency for doing good to men's bodies 
as well as their souls, the Church of to-day 
will, unless it sees and repairs its error, lose 
this attraction. Jesus Christ must have his 
own. Christians must do good in his name. 
Want, relieved by his bounty, must give him 
its gratitude. Sorrow, consoled by his sym- 
pathy expressed through his followers, must 
know that its tears were wiped away by his 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



245 



hand. Jesus Christ, the poor man's friend, 
must have his own. His Church represents 
him before the world, speaks his words, must 
do his work, and so give him the glory due 
unto his name. 



O 






246 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

TT7HE work of bringing the world to Christ 
* can be done only as rapidly as the willing 
hearts and active hands of Christian men and 
women will do it. All the resources of the gos- 
pel are placed at their command. The atoning 
blood; the quickening, witnessing, and sancti- 
fying Spirit; the organized Church with its 
ordinances, its fellowship, and all its means of 
grace; the written word, and the preached gos- 
pel, with the attending power and demonstra- 
tion of the Holy Ghost — all these are the ex- 
pressions and proofs of God's love and mercy 
to man. That love and that mercy are infinite. 
They are incapable of increase or diminution. 
The fountain of God's grace is free and full 
forever. That sun always shines. He is the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever. There- 
fore, when we pray for a revival in the Church, 
we do not expect that our prayer will make 
God more willing to bless his creatures on the 
earth. When we make special effort to save 
souls, it is with no thought that God is in any 
degree to be changed in his disposition toward 
the intended beneficiaries of the movement. 
That would be in direct contradiction to his 
word and his nature. What, then, is aimed at 
in such concentration of prayer and labor? 
Simply to make a channel for the inflowing 
grace of God. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 24tl 

The worthless matter sinks to the bottom of 
the sea of reading, and is lost to sight, having 
served the good purpose of giving a vent to 
vanity, or of allowing a bore to exercise his 
baleful gift in the most merciful way. When 
a bore talks, you must listen; when he prints, 
you need not read unless you choose to do so. 



To go into a community in which there are 
many sinners unsaved, and spend a week or a 
fortnight in trying to unsettle the opinions of 
Christians concerning non-essential matters, is 
what some call evangelization. But it is a sort 
of evangelization that the devil does not dread. 



When a Christian stops praying vaguely and 
coldly for the salvation of all men, and goes to 
work for the salvation of one man within his 
reach, you may be sure that he is in earnest. 



A local preacher who does not preach is in 
danger of drying up. Dead leaves, rotten 
wood, and mud will spoil the sweetest, coolest 
spring whose channel is not kept open. 



When the parents never meet their own 
children in the Sunday-school, and the chil- 
dren never meet their parents in the Church, 
there is something wrong. 



248 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The habit of half-jocular irony and badinage 
among ministers and other Christians often 
destroys the sweetness and profit of their as- 
sociation with each other to an extent not 
thought of by them. Its evils are both object- 
ive and subjective. ._ 

The man who makes a living by selling dry 
goods does it openly. The man who makes 
his living by retailing whisky puts a screen 
before his door. There is a reason for this 
peculiar modesty. 

That one inconsistency of* yours made it 
harder for a score of your brethren to buffet 
the tide of temptation. Woe to him by whom 
the offense cometh ! \ 

The brother who slips off to another Church 
because his own pastor does not fill the pulpit 
violates good manners and the principles of 
Christian ethics. 

The pastor who is too timid to expect a re- 
vival under his own efforts must have obeyed 
the call to the ministry with mental reserva- 
tions. 

These times are the worst to those who lack 
faith, and the best to those who have it. 



-5= 



-<§>-" ^^vSg)- ^) , r 



EASTER. 



® I © 



fHE resurrection is the foundation-fact 
of the gospel. The apostles were wit- 
nesses. They testified that which they 
did know. They had seen and handled the 
Word of Life. They could not keep the mighty 
secret that filled their own hearts with wonder 
and joy. They went forth everywhere telling 
the glad news, kindling a new hope and a new 
joy in the earth. 

Its newness was an element of power to those 
who first heard of the resurrection from the 
living lips of the apostles. Immortality hith- 
erto had been only a guess, or, at most, the 
speculative dogma of a sect. Now it became 
a demonstration. It was as if encircling mists 
had been suddenly swept aside, and a sun- 
burst of glory flashed upon the world. The 
subtleties of Pharisaic logic gave way to the 
grateful and rapturous attestation of men 
whose hearts were still throbbing with the joy 
of personal contact with their risen Lord, and 
in whose ears were still echoing his parting 

(249) 



words. We can scarcely form any adequate 
conception of the effect of such a revelation 
upon the minds of the heathen. It was all 
new to them, and the whole aspect of life and 
destiny was changed at once. No wonder it 
is said that there was great joy in the cities 
where Jesus and the resurrection were preached 
by men who had been eye-witnesses of the 
wonders they declared, and who felt in their 
rejoicing hearts the resurrection power of the 
Son of God. To us the old, old story is sweet, 
but to them it was like a strain of heavenly 
music, taking the place of the discords of er- 
ror and the wailings of despair. That which 
to us is the calm satisfaction resulting from 
the gradual unfolding of a fact, through a life- 
time, was to them the sudden and overpower- 
ing perception of a great event that filled their 
souls with a new joy and their future with an 
absolutely new hope. 

Now and then it comes to us with the fresh- 
ness and power of a new revelation as we stand 
by the bed of the dying, or look down into an 
open grave. The old dogma becomes a living 
fact in our consciousness, and thenceforth the 
resurrection of our Lord is inseparably blended 
with the hope of the resurrection of our own 
beloved and unforgotten dead. The annual 
resurrection-festival, which comes with the res- 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 251 

urrection of nature, brings back their images 
to the mind with fresh vividness, and points 
us to the great day when those that sleep in 
Jesus will rise to reign with him forever, and 
when we shall live together with him. There 
is a subtle influence in the season that turns 
our thought to these sacred subjects, and mem- 
ory and hope speak to our souls in tones of 
unusual tenderness and sweetness. There is a 
process of resurrection within us. We feel the 
touch of mysterious power, and lo! we are 
borne into a world where a new peace rests 
upon the shining hills, and a new glory bright- 
ens the skies. 

There is a risen Christ only in the renewed 
heart. The significance of the rising is in the 
death. "It is Christ that died, yea, rather, 
that is risen again, who is even at the right- 
hand of God, who also maketh intercession 
for us." The atonement, the resurrection, the 
ascension, and the intercession of our Lord, 
are all correlated facts. Around the resurrec- 
tion-festival of Easter-week shines the blended 
glory of all. Into the believing heart the med- 
itations of the season will open a channel into 
which the Holy Ghost may pour full tides of 
religious joy. 



252 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

T ^ET the doubter pray. The prayirg atti- 
*-* tude is the receptive. Whatever stands 
in the way of prayer is an impassable barrier 
between the soul and God. Pride is oftenest 
in the way. It is a subtle spirit, and often 
escapes recognition. It keeps in the dark and 
at a distance from God many who imagine it 
is something else. Before any man can enter 
in at the strait gate he must be willing to bow 
low before the mercy-seat in prayer. Take 
your doubts to God. The very act of the will 
in making that movement will strengthen your 
faith. "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask 
of God who giveth liberally." There is the 
promise which has never yet failed of fulfill- 
unent to any who have tested God by a sincere 
approach in prayer. Draw near to God. 



As Christian men learn the power of money 
as an agency for doing good, and use it faith- 
fully, they will have more of it committed to 
their trust. The conversion of the money- 
boxes of Christendom must precede the con- 
version of the world to Christ. 



" He would rather fight hornets than flies," 
is the way a brave old man put the fact that 
he preferred open, outspoken opposition to half- 
whispered, vague, pointless, caviling. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 253 

Do not allow yourself to be troubled by the 
controversial aspects of the question of Chris- 
tian holiness. Go on in the way of duty, and 
the light of Immanuel's face will shine on your 
soul as you advance. 



To put half of your heart into your wort 
and expect a full measure of fruit is such an 
absurdity that it is a wonder Satan himself 
could persuade anybody to accept it. 



It is a blessed thing that the tastes of hear- 
ers are as various as the gifts of preachers. 
Be slow in disparaging a sermon simply be- 
cause it did not suit you. 



The plea is that the whisky traffic is one of 
the " industries " of the country. All the dev- 
il's work may be placed under the same head. 
He is very industrious. 



When the Christian people of a community 
continue for generations narrow, illiberal, and 
unenterprising, what have their pastors been 
doing all the time? 

Bunyan might have put another character 
in his great allegory — Mr. Beady-to-see-your- 
Neighbor-Halt. You have met him. 



254 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

In looking for "disorderly" Church-mem- 
bers, do not look too far away. The tendency 
with many pastors is to say as the settlers do 
about the mosquitoes in a new country: " There 
are not many here, but just beyond they are 
dreadful!" 

There are characters that would charm and 
win all beholders if they possessed the one 
lacking grace — humility. Without it, genius 
itself is repellant. ' 

The Christian citizen must keep his own 
conscience. If he commits it to a party, it 
will not be long until he will not have any 
worth keeping. 

If the man who is conscious of undeveloped 
spiritual power is not dissatisfied with himself, 
it is because spiritual aspiration is dead with- 
in him. 

The man who reads an inferior book when 
he might be reading a good one is gathering 
coppers when he might be gathering gold- 
pieces. 

When you quote second-hand profanity with 
gusto, it shows that you would use it at first- 
hand but for the look of the thing. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 255 



If all our grumblings about the weather 
really meant an impeachment of the divine 
providence, the account against us would be a 
long one. But they are in most cases only 
idle words. Only! We must give account for 
them, too. 

When you take a young person into the 
Church unconverted, and only superficially 
convicted, dQ not be surprised when he seeks 
his pleasures on the world's ground instead of 
Christ's. 

Conscious communion with God is the one 
supreme difference between a real and a nom- 
inal Christianity. How do you stand related 
to this matter? 

While the theorists of both sexes are disput- 
ing about woman's vocation, she has found it 
in the Church, and it is to help bring the world 
to Christ. 

The man who says he can find nothing to do 
for his Master wants not work, but promotion 
or an easy place. 

The young man who wants to enjoy all the 
good things of this life without earning them 
is half a rascal. 



256 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The preacher who felt the glow dying out 
of his heart because there were only a few out 
to hear him did not have the right sort of a 
glow at the start. 

If you believe in "gradual sanctification," 
do not make it so very gradual that years elapse 
without perceptible progress. That sort is 
dangerous. 

No one man's opinion on a question of mere 
expediency is worth more than the peace of the 
Church — no, not even if it is your opinion, 
brother. 

Your unanswered prayer — unanswered as yet 
visibly — is a deposit bearing interest. Impor- 
tunity is the condition of sure and large suc- 
cess. 

A single conscious touch of God's grace is 
the pledge of all that he can bestow or you 
receive. 

That which keeps you from following Christ 
would make it impossible for you to live in 
heaven. 

The great end of true prayer is to get 
strength to do God's will, not merely to get 
happy. 



THE THANKLESS. 



^T^rT^E are needy and imperfect creatures; 
i X i we are continually dependent on the 
divine bounty; and therefore we can 
never abandon the attitude of petitioners as 
long as we live in this world of trial and 
temptation. But shall we never go to God 
except when we want to get something from 
him? In reading the apostolic Epistles we are 
struck with the frequent outbursts of joyful 
thanksgiving for the present benefits of the 
gospel as well as the fuller blessedness to be 
enjoyed hereafter. In the midst of their per- 
ils and sufferings the apostles made frequent 
approaches to the throne of grace, praying for 
guidance and support; but so full was their 
comfort and joy that the songs of thanksgiv- 
ing mingled with their supplications for grace 
to help in time of need. 

Is there not a lesson here for you? Does 
not your thanklessness lessen your receptivity 
of the good things of the kingdom of heaven? 
Give thanks unto God — for what? If you are 

17 (257; 



258 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

indeed a Christian you need not be told, except 
in the way of affectionate reminder. Think it 
over for yourself. Make a mental inventory 
of your possessions as a child of God and heir 
of heaven. Pardoned sin; a renewed nature; 
soul-rest; a living and joyful hope; enjoyment 
of the means of grace; union with Christ and 
delight in him — all these are yours as a present 
possession. Each single item in the catalogue 
of mercies, dwelt upon thoughtfully, is enough 
to tune the heart to grateful thanksgiving. 
Why, then, do you not oftener go to God with 
an offering of gratitude ? 

Is it because in some dark season of your 
life the grateful song died out of your back- 
slidden heart, and thanklessness has since be- 
come a habit with you? Wait liot a single day 
before you begin a better habit. 

Is it because you have felt so hard pressed 
in the battle of life that you have not had time 
to count up the mercies of your Lord and lift 
the song of praise? That is a folly like that 
of a traveler over the desert sands, thirsty and 
faint, grudging the time it would take to drink 
from a cool fountain that gushed at his feet. 

Is it because your lot is cast among those 
who have congealed into the frigid formalism, 
so genteel and so chilling, that has taken the 
place of the warmth and spontaneity of other 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 259 

days? Is reticence and impassiveness fash- 
ionable in your circle? Then it is time that 
you had broken through these icy barriers and 
entered into that warmer zone where the sun 
shines and the air is full of life and joy. 

Is it because you have had losses and griefs, 
and though you would not dare to formulate 
the complaint in words, yet deep down in your 
heart you feel that the Lord has dealt hardly 
with you? Have you allowed yourself to look 
only at what seems to you the dark side of 
things until all seems dark? There are many, 
it is to be feared, who do not impeach the di- 
vine goodness directly,' but whose sullen and 
sunless spirit is a perpetual reproach to their 
Father in heaven and a standing discredit to 
their Christian profession. The remedy in such 
a case as this is to be found in turning the 
thought to the other and brighter side of life. 
You have lost much, it may be, but God and 
heaven may still be yours. You have suffered 
much, but you may have present and eternal 
compensations. These momentary afflictions 
work out everlasting blessedness for such as 
endure to the end. 

Is it because worldliiiess has so mastered 
your life that there is no longer in your heart 
that hungering and thirsting for heavenly 
things which is the condition of being filled 



260 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



with the fullness of peace and joy? Then 
there is but one thing for yon to do: do again 
your first works ; lie low before the mercy-seat 
with a broken heart until Jesus makes you 
whole. Your thanklessness is the result of 
spiritual dearth, and is a symptom of spiritual 
death. Delay not in your return to Him who 
alone can give you the heart of flesh for the 
heart of stone. 






^w 




GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 261 

F PERFECTION! The word startles some 
9 and troubles others. But it is in the 
Book. It is in the experiences of all who fol- 
low the Lord with undivided hearts. Not the 
perfection of the glorified in heaven, but of the 
sanctified on earth — the perfection of promise 
fulfilled; the perfection of a hope realized; the 
perfection of a prize grasped; the perfection 
of a victory won. This is the Holy Spirit's 
work in a soul where his presence is invited 
and his leadings followed. " Quench not the 
Spirit." Obedience to this injunction insures 
this steady development of the spiritual life 
and the attainment of this goal. Commit no 
sin, omit no duty. Respond to every divine 
touch, heed every whisper of the Spirit. By 
the very law of your nature, your spiritual sen- 
sibility will be indefinitely quickened until the 
slightest touch will be felt; and the heart, thus 
kept in tune, will make unceasing melody unto 
the Lord. The spiritual ear, attent to the voice 
it loves to hear, will recognize it even amid 
the din and discords of the world. The life 
will be hid with Christ in God; the conversa- 
tion will be in heaven; the life now lived will 
be by the faith of the Son of God ; the believer 
will have attained the perfection to which his 
gracious Lord invites. Perfection! Dwell on 
the meaning of this largest word. 



262 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The real test of faith is when heavy trouble 
comes to us while we are in the path of duty. 
"I have not deserved this, for God knows I 
was trying my best to do right," says the hon- 
est but bewildered believer. Ah, brother, you 
mistake trouble for wrath, when it is only the 
angel that God sends to lead you up higher. 



The pastor sometimes defers his visit to the 
sick and sorrowing because, feeling depressed 
in body or mind himself, he is afraid that he 
will be a "Job's comforter." This is a wrong 
view — that is the very time for him to go. His 
visit then will bless himself as well as another. 



The old preacher who took you into the 
Church — do you ever think of him? He is 
worn out and "laid on the shelf," but he is 
not beyond the reach of gratitude and kind- 
ness. Try it and see. 



A true Christian life is progressive. You 
admit that. But do you see the inevitable de- 
duction, namely, that if you are not making 
progress your life cannot be wholly -true? 



To see whether a preacher is a good mana- 
ger of money, let him have a little money now 
and then to manag3. 



The professed Christian who habitually ex- 
cludes religion from his conversation need not 
be surprised when he finds the stream of his 
spiritual life flowing in a feeble current. If 
it were not so, the fact would involve a contra- 
diction of the laws of the kingdom of God. 



The man who rides some dogmatic religious 
hobby furiously, and at the same time neglects 
family worship, and exhibits habitual ill-tem- 
per toward his wife and children, is an offense 
unto God and man. The most sacred truth is 
defiled by his touch. 



You decline to invest in a public enterprise, 
religious or educational, because you think of 
moving away. That is to say, you refuse to 
plant a seed because you may not eat of the 
fruit of the tree. Be ashamed of yourself! 



The point in the special service at which the 
strength of the leader flagged was that at which 
the saving power of God was manifest. Noth- 
ing obscured the awful attraction of the cross. 



Do not criticise too harshly the man who 
goes from one extreme in his opinions to an- 
other. That is his nature. He is an ultraist 
in temperament, not a hypocrite. 



264 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The pride that refuses to walk in the light 
because there is a limit to knowledge ruins 
many and weakens others. When a Christian 
finds himself fretting at the limitations of hu- 
man thought, let him go to prayer; he is on 
dangerous ground. 

The impulsive man whom you love for his 
warm heart and generous actions must not be 
discarded because now and then he yields to 
an impulse which is not a wise one. A single 
broken facet does not make a diamond value- 
less. 

If you experience joyful fervors in devotion- 
al exercises, and yet lack serenity and sweet- 
ness of spirit amid the cares and collisions of 
actual life, you must take another degree in 
Christian living. 

If religious teachers stop to refute all the 
nonsense afloat, they will have time for noth- 
ing else. Preoccupy the ground with the truth, 
and there will be no room for error. Preach 
the gospel. 

The man who expects to kindle a fire with 
ice instead of flame is not more foolish than 
the preacher who expects to rouse sinners 
when his own heart is cold. 



THE NON-APPRECIATED. 



WEAK natures wither under the effects 
of non-appreciatioB ; strong ones grow 
stronger. Christian character is af- 
fected by it variously, according to the varying 
degrees of spiritual sweetness and nobility in 
different persons. 

Many have sunk under the weight of this 
burden; many are sinking. Gifted men in the 
ministry have seen others, believed by them 1 > 
be their inferiors, promoted over their heads 
to positions of prominence and extensive influ- 
ence. Preachers, conscious of real power and 
possessing solid learning, are eclipsed by nun 
whose capital consists only of vigorous lungs, 
brazen-faced self-assertion, and the little arts 
that captivate the crowd. The man of real 
ability in an obscure place is not heard of out- 
side the narrow limits of his immediate activ- 
ity, while another, known by the judicious to be 
weak and shallow, plays the role of assumed 
greatness in a conspicuous place into which he 
seems to have been thrown by accident or folly. 

(263) 



266 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

Nor is this sense of non -appreciation con- 
fined to the ministry. It pervades all ranks 
in the Church. Here is a man whose whole 
nature is acidulated because, being poor, he 
sees, or thinks he sees, that he is unappreci- 
ated by his richer brethren. There is another 
who prizes some gift or quality in himself 
more highly than others do, and feels that his 
whole life is narrowed and robbed of its pos- 
sible outcome by the non - appreciation that 
compels him to be silent w T hen he should be 
speaking, or inactive when he should be work- 
ing in the special sphere for which he believes 
himself specially endowed. Thus cut off from 
the path he prefers to follow, he sulks, weak- 
ens, sinks into inaction, and darkens and 
withers into chronic spiritual gloom and bar- 
renness. 

In family circles may be found many sad- 
hearted, fainting ones who are withering in this 
freezing atmosphere of non-appreciation. The 
mother who is giving all her strength, and 
would gladly give her life, for her children, 
asking no return in kind, hungers for a little 
appreciation. A word of grateful acknowledg- 
ment now and then would be to her a cooling 
draught to thirsty lips. But no such word is 
spoken. Her toils, her vigils, her self-denials, 
are taken as a matter of course, and the more 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 267 

she does for these unloving or unthinking chil- 
dren, the more exacting they become. Mother- 
love itself faints under such a strain, and its 
streams of tenderness are turned back in icy 
coldness upon the breaking heart. The hus- 
band and father, fighting a hard battle against 
accumulating difficulty and misfortune, finds 
only selfish complaints and cruel reproaches 
in the household for which he is giving his 
strength and his life, and he hardens into reck- 
lessness or breaks down under the weight of 
his troubles. 

From the company of the non-appreciated 
are excluded the few who get what they feel to 
be their deserts, and the ultra-egotistic whose 
self-appreciation is sufficient to cover all lack 
in others. 

There is blessing, not evil, in this trial to all 
who will receive the blessing. It is just what 
is needed to teach the highest lesson of heav- 
enly truth. It throws the soul directly upon 
God, whose smile alone is heaven to the be- 
lieving heart. It discovers to us whether or 
not God is indeed to us a satisfying portion. 
It enables us to know whether our happiness 
is in his keeping or the world's. It holds up 
to us the mirror in which we discern whether 
we bear the image of our gracious Lord, who 
made himself of no reputation, taking upon 



268 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



him the form not of a master, but of a serv- 
ant, emptying himself of the glory which he 
had before the world was, that he might be the 
world's Saviour. 

The gold is refined, the dross is discovered 
in this fiery trial. The soul fully centered in 
God does not lose its peace and its sweetness 
because human hearts are cold. The life that 
blooms in spiritual beauty under the smile of 
the Lord does not wither under the frown, 
neglect, or scorn of men. The faith that is 
rooted in a consciousness of the faithfulness 
of God is beyond the reach of antagonistic or 
repressive human influence. 

Into almost every one's cup some drop of 
this bitterness falls at one time or another. 
There is no place so high, there is none so low, 
as to be beyond its reach. It is a corroding 
poison to some natures, a tonic to others. 




GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 269 

M CHURCH which, during long, dry, decent, 
lifeless years, has had no revival, does 
stagnate, and in its dead and stifling atmos- 
phere is generated the moral miasm that poi- 
sons its life and makes it an easy prey to the 
foe. Such a Church is a training-school for 
perfunctory preaching in the pulpit and form- 
alists in the pews. Such a Church, like the 
petrified forest of California, has the form of 
organic life, but no living principle or power 
of growth or reproduction. It is simply a 
spiritual petrifaction. 



To be suspected of a lack of good common 
sense weakens a minister's influence; to be 
suspected of a lack of courageous earnestness 
destroys it utterly. A fanatic may be feared 
or hated; a coward is despised. 



The way in which the average partisan can 
condone an act of rascality that benefits his 
own side is a striking proof that the noble 
science of politics in its present state is well 
called a "filthy pool." 



When a man's theories of moral reform are 
in advance of his practice, he will not be able 
to put more than half of his strength into his 
blows for the right side. 



270 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Jn the Church, as well as out of it, there are 
apparent misadjustments. But true men come 
out of these grindings brighter and keener. In 
some cases a final test is thus made of men 
who, if they fail not, are destined to stand in 
the thick of the fight where it is hottest. If 
they fail, it is because there was- a flaw in the 
metal. 

To point the people to the mountain of ho- 
liness and tell them how blessed a thing it is 
to stand on its sunlit summit, is not enough. 
When the pastor, with shining face and heart 
of love, beckons to them from the heights, they 
will follow. 

The preacher whose overearnestness offends 
a sinner to-day will be the one that sinner will 
want to see when he wrestles at the mercy-seat 
with a burdened heart or grapples with the 
last enemy, Death. 

When you allow " company " to break up the 
devotional habits of your household, it shows 
that your devotions are more a habit than a 
principle. 

When there are twenty ready to dispute 
where there is one ready to testify to an in- 
dwelling Christ, it is time to think and pray. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 271 

There is nothing that so surely stirs the 
heart of saint or sinner as the relation of gen- 
uine Christian experience, whether it come 
from a preacher or a lay member of the Church. 
The true fire of religion kindles wherever it 
touches. 

Can a man know that he is a Christian be- 
fore he dies? If so, how long before he dies? 
Do you know that you are one ? To you every 
other question is insignificant in comparison 
with this. 

Every boy, be he rich or poor, should have 
some regular labor woven into the warp of his 
life. The time to form habits is when the whole 
boy is forming. 

You are a professed Christian, but if you 
habitually prefer worldly to religious enjoy- 
ments, wherein do you differ from a worldling? 



Christianity deals principally with the con- 
science and the affections. Forgetfulness of 
this makes much waste and many blunders. 



If earnest desire for a revival burns in one 
believing heart in your Church, the revival is 
already begun. 



272 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

How far may I go with the world? Does a 
young convert ever ask this question when 
glowing in the warmth of his first love after 
genuine conversion? You ask it now. There 
can be but one inference — that love is gone. 



Super-sensitiveness is a constitutional in- 
firmity with many good people, but grace will 
eradicate it in some cases, and modify it in all. 



The lamp that does not shine is not lighted. 
A true Christian discovers his relationship to 
Christ everywhere — even at a watering-place. 



When the true pastor has to wound a friend 
that he may save him, he shares the soul-tra- 
vail of Jesus. 

The reading you do on Sunday afternoon 
will give you a pretty fair test of what is your 
real taste. 

The elect are whosoever will; the non-elect 
are whosoever won't. Every man classifies 
himself. 

Spiritual power and attraction in the Church 
of God are inseparable. 



CHRIST IN YOU. 



G HEIST in you is the mystery of godli- 
ness. The words must have had a novel 
sound to the Christians at Colosse, who 
had just come out of the darkness of heathen- 
ism. They go to the very bottom of the great 
question of a consciousness of divine things. 
They declare the fullness of the evidence that 
satisfies the believing soul. It is, as the apos- 
tle says, the revelation of a mystery. It is 
what the psalmist calls the secret of the Lord. 
Christ in you is Christ in your conscious- 
ness — a personal knowledge of him as your 
Saviour. It is that direct testimony of con- 
sciousness to which appeal is so constantly and 
so confidently made in the New Testament. 
The indwelling Christ made that new world in 
which his followers dwelt apart. Apostolic lips 
seemed touched with sacred fire whenever they 
spoke of this sublime and gracious mystery of 
the faith. They took it for granted they would 
be understood. They made no argument to 
prove such blessedness possible, but appealed 
18 (273) 



to it as a common experience, the one supreme 
demonstration of redemption by Jesus Christ, 
and the bond of cohesion among his followers. 
Their exulting, undoubting affirmation is, " We 
know whom we have believed." They declare 
that they have the witness in themselves, and 
that is the end of controversy. Sophistries 
could not confuse or confound them, torture 
could not conquer their endurance, death could 
not terrify them. Christ in them was the an- 
tidote to doubt, despondency, and fear. 

Christ in you means to you no less than it 
did to them as regards these subjective results. 
It means to you righteousness, peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost. It means certainty with 
regard to the most vital questions concerning 
which others doubt, the rest of the soul in the 
realization of a present Saviour, and a conscious 
salvation. If the heathen of Colosse, born of 
the Spirit, knew the mighty meaning of the 
words, shame on us upon whom the ends of 
the earth have come if we comprehend them 
not in the fullness of their gracious signifi- 
cance ! 

Christ in you is Christ in your character as 
well as in your consciousness. Christ-likeness 
is recognizable in ourselves as it is in others. 
The words of Christ reveal his mind. Our 
words reveal ours. By our words we shall be 




judged, and by our words we may judge our- 
selves. The spirit of Christ governs the speech 
of his true followers. There is nothing in a 
Christian's life that so continually expresses 
his character as his words. Speech . is the 
pulse of the inner nature. If any man offend 
not in word, he is perfect. The indwelling 
Christ may be discerned in the topics and the 
temper of our conversation. Un- Christ-like 
speech is a demonstration that Christ is not 
known as a felt and sanctifying presence and 
power in the soul. Christ in you in the full- 
ness of his grace means that you have put 
away all evil-speaking, wdth its concomitants, 
bitterness, wrath, envy, jealousy, and such like. 
Ye that would feel the joy of this blessed ex- 
perience, look well to this. Christ in you 
means that there is a manifestation of him in 
all the life of a believer. The life he now 
lives is by the faith of the Son of God. Christ 
liveth in him. The deep truth contained in 
this declaration is that the aggregate body of 
believers continue to manifest Christ to the 
world, and that every individual follower is a 
medium through whom the living Christ is 
translated to the minds and consciences of 
mankind. The Christ in them is the only 
Christ that men will see. They are the living 
epistles seen and read of all men. Christ in 



your character is unmistakable. Men will take 
knowledge of you that you have been with 
Jesus when you exhibit his spirit. The true 
life expressing the true character of a Chris- 
tian is a demonstration that will be accepted 
by the restless, yearning heart of the world. 

Christ in you is the hope of glory. The 
logic of it is simple, but. conclusive. If Christ 
in you gives conscious peace and joy, and pro- 
duces now the character and the fruits of 
holiness, you may be sure that the promise of 
future glory will not fail. Grace now is the 
pledge of glory hereafter. Christ in you now 
is the guarantee that you shall reign with him 
in his eternal kingdom. The author of your 
faith will be its finisher. Now are we the sons 
of God; what we shall be is not fully revealed, 
but we know we shall be like him, because we 
shall see him as he is. Christ in you is the 
certainty of present acceptance, and future 
glorification. You feel that your union with 
him is so close and so sacred that he will not 
live in glory and leave you behind. 

This present consciousness of the indwelling 
Christ and its corollary, the exulting hope of 
the glory that is to be revealed at his coming, 
is the present privilege of every one of his 
humble followers.' If all would claim the full- 
ness of this offered blessing, what a transfor- 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 



271 



mation of the Church, what a brightening of 
the outlook for humanity, would take place! 
Why reject this offer of the fullness of bless- 
ing? AVhy delay to lay hold upon this glo- 
rious hope? 



i id 



I 






TW'$\ 



278 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

TITHE English language is the language of 
A evangelical Christianity. It is a signifi- 
cant fact, not unnoticed by thoughtful and 
prayerful men, that it is becoming more and 
more the language of commerce for the whole 
world. If we are to have a universal language, 
it will be the English. This, it seems to us, 
without arrogance or vanity, is assured by the 
wonderful adaptation of the language itself, 
and the aggressive and assimilative power of 
the English-speaking peoples. These facts are 
not fortuitous. Considered in connection with 
the tendency in our modern mission- work, pa- 
tent to every thoughtful observer, they are cal- 
culated to arrest attention and to excite a pro- 
found interest in the minds of all devout and 
thoughtful Christians. Commerce has prepared 
the way for Christ. Even the profane Jack-tar 
in the ports of Shanghai, Yokohama, or Cal- 
cutta, is unconsciously preparing the way of the 
Lord. 

The conversion which seems at last to be 
sudden is the culmination of influences that 
have been working upon the soul for years. 
Do not lose heart or hope if the fruit of your 
prayers and efforts do not immediately appear. 
The spiritual harvest may be left to the Lord 
of the harvest when you have done your part. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 279 

The sneer that would chill the sympathy felt 
for a dying malefactor, or crush out the hope 
that God's mercy may enkindle in the wretch's 
despairing soul, is fashionable just now. And 
yet lost men will continue to look to the cross, 
and tender Christian hearts will be ready to 
pray with them and for them. 



The brother who is cultured, pious, and can 
make respectable verses, but is not a poet, is 
the one who embarrasses his friends, and makes 
the kind-hearted editor wish to flee away and 
be at rest. 

A total lapse in spiritual life is likely to be 
followed by the total loss of even abstract be- 
lief in the divine reality. "From him that 
hath not shall be taken away even that which 
he hath." 

The preacher who finds that he cannot put 
forth his best efforts because his hearers are 
unappreciative and unresponsive needs more 
of the faith that makes the judgment-day a 
reality. 

A free press and free speech in the Church 
are the conservators of its peace as well as its 
progress. Eevolution is not needed where re- 
form is always in order. 



Some pastors have a wonderful gift in the 
line of getting their people to work. Some 
make the mistake of trying to do every thing 
themselves. They spread themselves oat so 
that they are scarcely felt at any point. They 
educate their charges into efficiency. This 
is a fault into which the ill- judging zeal of 
young preachers often leads them. 



The man who keeps moving to avoid droughts 
here and floods there usually moves just fast 
enough to let misfortune overtake him. The 
man who stays where he is, plows deep, works 
steadily, and trusts God, usually prospers. 



The prophet who has honor in his own coun- 
try will not escape jealousy and envy. As poor 
human nature is constituted without special 
grace, these are correlatives. 



In both Church and State affairs the inno- 
cent never shrink from investigation. This 
axiom is an Ith Uriel's spear, and will reveal 
every rascal it touches. 



Your good deed was not properly understood 
or appreciated by the beneficiary. Never mind. 
It will come back to you at last perfumed with 
the odors of heaven. 



A MEDITATION. 



' OME things we do not know, and cannot 
know in this life. The mystery of evil 
is insoluble to us. We can argue and 
we can speculate, but there are depths here we 
cannot fathom. The tares have been sown in 
the fair field of God's creation; an enemy hath 
done it; this is all that is revealed to us, and 
this is the limit of our knowledge. We can- 
not see why the innocent should suffer; back 
of all the explanations made in the Bible, and 
all the compensations it promises, lies a diffi- 
culty that confounds our human reason. The 
facts of human life that meet us every day are, 
as the psalmist put it, too painful for us. The 
young and the happy die, and the old live on 
in pain, though longing for release. Good men 
and women are stricken down in the midst of 
their usefulness, and the vilest are left to add 
to their guilt and degradation, and to curse 
the world. Death enters the family circle, and 
takes the one that can least be spared. The 
most painful forms of bodily disease seize upon 

(281) 



282 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



the sensitive frames of the noblest and most 
refined, and beauty and strength are marred, 
broken, crushed out. More painful still, men- 
tal disease attacks the brightest intellects, and 
blights the most beautiful and fruitful lives. 
These calamities come upon the truest and the 
best while engaged in the holiest, most self-de- 
nying ministries of their lives. Ah, this is the 
bitterest drop in the cup given them to drink! 
The lightning that laid low their joys and hopes 
leaped forth from a sky in which no cloud was 
visible. The plans that were thwarted were 
unselfish; the labors that were cut short were 
for others who had sacred claims and urgent 
needs. The sufferer thought all was going as 
God would have it, when there came a sudden 
crash, and nothing is left but what seems to 
be the wreck of a broken life. It is a bruised 
and broken humanity; a great company of 
smitten ones walk amid these shadows, baffled 
by the mystery of life, and fainting under the 
weight of a burden they feel to be too heavy for 
them. They cry to God out of these depths, still 
clinging, though it may be with feeble grasp, 
to the Eternal Rock, or sinking into the black 
waves of despair. Our heart goes out to these 
in tender sympathy, for have we not walked 
amid these shadows and wrestled with these 
problems? We stand with them silent in the 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 283 

presence of these facts of life and providence, 
constrained to confess that they are beyond our 
comprehension. 

Let it be so. Accepting the limitations of 
our knowledge, we bow in submission to the 
inevitable. But we do know some things, the 
consideration of which will be helpful to us 
while watching through the night of earthly 
trial, waiting for the morning. 

We know that what God does is right. What 
he does directly is done in wisdom, in right- 
eousness. What he does by the operation of 
his laws is equally wise and right. Where w r e 
can trace him clearly, his goodness is mani- 
fest; where we cannot trace we may safely 
trust him. The Judge of all the earth will do 
right. He is righteousness itself. 

We know that what God permits must be 
best. We know this, whether we can explain 
it or not. He permits temporary evil to the 
good, and temporary success to the wicked. 
He sees it best to let cause follow effect on the 
natural plane, even when the result brings 
calamity upon the guiltless. This does not 
preclude him from "making bare his arm" 
whenever there is occasion; he is the living 
God, behind all his laws, and above them. We 
would make the exception the rule if w^e had 
our way; but his ways are not our ways, nor 



his thoughts our thoughts. We see a single 
point; his vision sweeps the universe. We 
know that what he permits is best, and here 
we may rest. 

How do we know these things? Because 
God himself hath said it. He knew the trials 
we must meet, and the questions that would 
rise in our burdened souls. "All things work 
together for good to them that love God" — 
he hath said it, and it stands fast. His al- 
mightiness and his infinite love are at the 
back of that promise, and it will not fail. 

How do we know? We have the witness 
within us. Not always in the same full meas- 
ure, and not alike to all at all times. There 
are divers manifestations. Temperamental 
and other conditions modify experience on 
this line. But on the fleshly tablet of every 
believing heart the Holy Spirit writes, " God 
is good." " Though he slay me, yet will I 
trust in him," is the cry not of fanatic blind- 
ness, but of a subjective assurance of the di- 
vine love as deep as consciousness and strong 
as life itself. "I know," is the language of 
assurance. "I know," said Stephen dying for 
the truth; "I know," said Paul in prison 
waiting for the headsman; "I know," said a 
great company who have gone up out of great 
tribulations; and everyone of the sore-hearted, 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 



285 



bruised, broken, bewildered, fainting ones trav- 
eling the same paths of pain and sorrow, may 
say, "I know." The night is dark, and the 
storm is raging; but there is a hand you can 
clasp, and it will lead you to the light. 




286 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH, 

TT7HE Holy Spirit's control over the body is 
A cumulative. As his instrument, the body 
becomes more obedient to his commands. The 
laws of our being work for, not against, the 
soul. The new habits of the new life strength- 
en daily, and the body itself becomes an in- 
strument so perfectly tuned that under the 
Spirit's touch it is a perfect vehicle of expres- 
sion for the trusting, obedient, happy soul of 
the believer who is filling the measure of duty, 
ai)d enjoying the fullness of blessing. 



Many persons regard the formation of their 
character as a process scarcely begun, and to 
be completed at a far distant day, when lo! 
they have already crystallized into their per- 
manent moral type. Every day brings its 
tests, and makes its impress. Each twenty- 
four hours is a part of eternity, one link in an 
endless chain. 

The man who knows that he pleases God 
cannot be disturbed because he cannot please 
all of his fallible fellow-men. 



To the true man the success of a cherished 
idea is dearer than the paternity of it. 



The true remedy for barren farms and bar- 
ren Churches — deep plowing. 



GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 287 

The educated man who sees most clearly the 
universal reign of law, and believes most firm- 
ly in the eternal Law-maker, is the man whoso 
mind is serenest amid the throes of this tran- 
sition time. To prove the reign of law is to 
prove the rulership of God. 



Beware of the spiritual pride which so often 
assails men and women who have conquered the 
grosser and more patent forms of sin. It is 
the w T orm that has blighted many a life that 
had begun to blossom in spiritual beauty. 



Some very good people are not thrifty. But 
do not confound thriftlessness with unworld- 
liness. Lack of reasonable forethought and 
industry is not spirituality. Call folly and la- 
ziness by their right names. 



The victory of faith is not a vague and faint 
persuasion that somehow all will come right 
at the end; it is actual triumph over present 
difficulties, and consciousness of an indwelling, 
victorious Christ. 

You nurse a secret discontent at the core of 
your restless heart when the best for time and 
eternity is within your reach. The best! think 
of it, and take heart. 



288 GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

The solemn and momentous truths that fall 
upon heedless ears and unresponsive hearts 
may at length lose their significance to the 
speaker. As nothing follows their proclama- 
tion, it is but too natural to drift unconscious- 
ly into the feeling that there is nothing in 
them. Insensibly the preacher thus tempted 
and tried begins to rotate on the axis of per- 
functory preaching. He warns the sinner of 
his awful peril in scriptural language, but with 
no thrill of sympathetic alarm; he invites his 
hearers to the gospel-feast, but in a tone that 
shows he does not expect them to come; he 
speaks of the joys of heaven and the pains of 
hell in the same lifeless way, showing that he 
has reached the point when these things have 
ceased to move him as they have ceased to 
move his hearers. There has been a fatal re- 
action from the pew to the pulpit. And now 
it is mutual — a dying pulpit going on repeat- 
ing unfelt truths to deaf ears. 



A gloomy Christian shadows his own land- 
scape. The sunshine on the hill§ of Beulah 
he never sees. By and by he will persuade 
himself that it is not there. 



The best expression of faith in Christ is to 
follow him. You cannot go beyond this. 




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